Your assignment for tomorrow: Plan an essay explaining why the freedom to offend is a core principle of society.
Hint:
1) Start with a reflection on your own past when you thought you were correct and were mistaken.
2) Then, in humility, consider how you depend on others to help you recognize those mistakes.
3) Finally, explain how you depend on an accurate mental map of reality to plan your best future.
Deduce from this mind-experiment why it is that the freedom to offend, and to be offended is essential to an individual. Then project this insight to where groups of individuals interact. We call this society. Interesting, isn't it, that democracy codifies the humility that any one person can think of a better way to do something, and to try to convince others of it. This, my friend, is the freedom to offend -- to tell someone something they may not care to hear.
Now that you have planned the essay, instead of writing that one, write an essay on why this insight is not taught in schools.
Assignment number two is to consider why the freedom to offend does not imply the necessity to do so.
Hint: respect for others who share humility.
These two insights are the cornerstones of civilization.
