自由の敵の自由問題

英国では昨年12月以来、Suzanne Kellyという女性が始めた、ドナルド・トランプ*1の入国禁止を求める署名運動が盛り上がっている;


Libby Brooks “Woman behind petition to ban Donald Trump from UK ‘shocked’ by support” http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/09/donald-trump-petition-ban-from-uk-suzanne-kelly-shocked-strong-support
Ethan DeWitt “Interview: Suzanne Kelly, creator of Donald Trump petition” http://www.studentnewspaper.org/suzanne-kelly/
Damien Gayle, Libby Brooks and Patrick Wintour “Donald Trump will not be barred from Britain despite Muslims outburst” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/09/petition-calling-for-donald-trump-to-be-banned-from-uk-signed-by-85000


しかし、最近紐育で開催された米国ペン・クラブの集まりで*2、JKローリング*3がこの署名運動に対する批判的な言及を行っている;


Alison Flood “JK Rowling defends Donald Trump's right to be 'offensive and bigoted'” http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/17/jk-rowling-defends-donald-trumps-right-to-be-offensive-pen-america


少し切り抜き。


While she personally finds Trump “offensive and bigoted”, Rowling said that his freedom to speak “protects my freedom to call him a bigot”, just as those critics who have claimed that she is trying to convert children to satanism with the Harry Potter books “are at liberty” to do so, and she is “free to explain that I’m exploring human nature and morality, or to say ‘you’re an idiot’, depending on which side of the bed I got out of that day”.

“If you seek the removal of freedoms from an opponent simply on the grounds that they have offended you, you have crossed a line to stand alongside tyrants who imprison, torture and kill on exactly the same justifications,” the novelist said. Rowling was at the Pen event to receive the 2016 Pen/Allen Foundation literary service award, an honour given to a writer who works to “oppose repression in any form and to champion the best of humanity”.

Rowling, who was honoured for her work as an advocate for women’s and girls’ rights and as a “fierce opponent of censorship”, was clear that the US presidential hopeful’s “freedom guarantees mine”.

“Unless we take that absolute position without caveats or apologies we have set foot upon a road with only one destination,” she told her New York audience. “If my offended feelings can justify a travel ban on Donald Trump, I have no moral grounds on which to argue that those offended by feminism, or the fight for transgender rights, or universal suffrage, should not oppress campaigners for those causes”.

Warning that the growing “intolerance of alternative viewpoints” is making her “most uncomfortable”, Rowling said the west sometimes takes its freedoms for granted. “I worry that we may be in danger of allowing their erosion through sheer complacency. The tides of populism and nationalism currently sweeping many developed countries have been accompanied by demands that unwelcome and inconvenient voices be removed from public discourse. It seems that unless a commentator or a television channel or a newspaper reflects exactly the complainant’s world view it must be guilty of bias or corruption.”

トランプの暴言の自由を認めることによって、自分がそうしたトランプをdisる自由が確保される。これは一理<ある。
それに対して、Suzanne Kellyさんが反論を書いている;


Suzanne Kelly “JK Rowling is wrong to defend Donald Trumphttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/may/19/jk-rowling-right-donald-trump


この反論のポイントのひとつは、トランプを批判する者の安全はどうするのかということ。特にトランプ信者どもの暴走を指摘している;


Does JK Rowling know about the Hispanic man allegedly beaten with metal bars by Trump supporters in Boston ? “Trump is right; we have too many immigrants,” they reportedly told police*4. Another Trump fan, William Celli, has been charged with possessing an explosive device, apparently to target Muslims*5 .

The artist Illma Gore, whose nude painting of Trump was widely circulated on the internet, was anonymously threatened with legal action*6 , and was punched by a man shouting “Trump in ’16”*7 . I’ve had threatening emails, too*8. I hope Rowling is as interested in Gore’s and my right to free expression as she is concerned with Trump’s.


英国では、80名のイスラームイマーム(「説教師」)の入国を、ヘイト・スピーチを行うということで禁止しているのだった。その一方で、トランプだけお咎めなしだったら、バランスを欠くということになる。
この論争はどの社会の人にとっても他人事として済ますことはできないだろう。〈自由の敵の自由〉問題としてより一般的な準位において議論できる筈だ。「トランプ」のところに適当な個人名や団体名を代入してみるといいよ。

*1:See also http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160112/1452559076 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160129/1454064240 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160220/1455946832 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160330/1459312281 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160410/1460305771

*2:https://pen.org/2016-PEN-gala

*3:See http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150112/1421033092 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150205/1423157081

*4:See Lorenzo Ferrigno “Donald Trump: Boston beating is 'terrible'” http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/20/politics/donald-trump-immigration-boston-beating/

*5:See Anita Chabria and Alyssa Jeong Perry “Police waited two weeks to arrest man over alleged pipe bomb and anti-Muslim threats” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/22/california-man-arrested-for-building-a-pipe-bomb-and-threats-to-muslims

*6:See Patrick Greenfield “Artist threatened with lawsuits if she sells nude Donald Trump painting” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/17/nude-donald-trump-painting-illma-gore-lawsuits

*7:See Illma Gore “Illma Gore: 'If anyone is going to be threatened by a small penis, it's Trump'” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/donald-trump-penis-painting-ilma-gore

*8:See Rob Edwards “Police investigate threats from far-right Trump supporters against Aberdeen campaigner fighting to keep billionaire out of the UK” http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14210102.Police_investigate_threats_from_far_right_Trump_supporters_against_Aberdeen_campaigner_fighting_to_keep_billionaire_out_of_the_UK/