A HISTORICAL AND RHIZOMATIC APPROACH TO FREE SPEECH AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Abstract

Free speech is a highly debated topic, it became a topic of cultural wars, lawsuits and dishonest propaganda. This is doubled up by the finicky nature of free speech as it is. There is no sole ideal definition that can satisfy all needs. There are many barriers in regards to creating a solid foundation of thought even in an attempt to explain free speech. In this article we will attempt to look at the right to free speech as a historical ideal in American and European history and from the perspective of Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of the rhizome as presented in their seminal work A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. We may have anything to add to such a debated topic only through the dissolution of the apparently opposed. Only by dissolving the arborescent and the rhizomatic structures we may achieve any semblance of a solution to the digitalised zeitgeist of our day to day lives.