Powerful medicine: The Synergism of Free Speech and Cybercommunications in American Multicultural Democracy

Abstract

In the 1995 film Crimson Tide, an American submarine commander, played by Gene Hackman, reprimands his executive officer, played by Denzel Washington, for expressing doubts about a decision in the presence of the crew. Well aware of the totalitarian nature of his leadership, and precluding any objections his executive officer may have about the abridgement of his rights of free speech, the commander emphatically pronounces We're here to preserve democracy, not to practice it. The sub commander's theory of command, exemplified by this seemingly paradoxical form~dation, brings the world to the brink of nuclear war by attempting to fire his warheads in de-fiance of protocol, a war prevented ' only by the democratically principled executive officer's refusal to submit to his commanding officer's self-willed cancellation of the rules of democracy. Americans have historically suspended democratic principles when national security or certain values or institutions Christianity, the Union, family, and, in the South, slavery seemed threatened1 Wartime has been regarded as an acute situation critical enough to warrant suppression of free speech and free media, as evidenced by the Alien and Se-