Nick Cave: “Intolerance of opposing ideas indicates a lack of confidence in one’s own thoughts”

nme.com:

Nick Cave has laid out his argument that listening to opposing ideas makes for a healthier society and that free speech isn’t a right but is a tool to “liberate the soul of our world”.In the latest instalment of his The Red Hand Files fan Q&A website, the singer-songwriter responded to two fans about questions on freedom of speech and religion.One fan named Lorraine, who wrote from Berlin, asked him: “What are your thoughts on free speech?

Do you think it is a right?”, while Jason from London sought a response about Christianity, writing: “For fuck’s sake, enough of the God and Jesus bullshit!”Cave, who is a defender of free speech including those of Morrissey’s, wrote in his answer to Lorraine that he’s “not so sure free speech is a right” but that it’s “something we, as a community, can use to enliven, embolden and liberate the soul of our world”.He explained that he sees each person possessing “individual sovereignty, their specialness” that is “a distinctiveness that is the very thing that should be prized”.

As such, that allows for people’s “own true thoughts” to be “terrifying” at their “most interesting”.“In fact, humans are mostly distinct individuals thinking terrifying things,” he wrote, before making reference to the “dangerous and heretical ideas” that Jesus Christ – someone whom he previously indicated in a BBC radio broadcast [via thehumandivine.org] he admired although was not devoted to – disseminated, and which led to his demise.“I’m not so sure free speech is a right, but it is certainly a societal or cultural attainment, something we, as a community, can use to enliven, embolden and liberate the soul of our world, provided we are fortunate enough to live in a society that allows such a thing,” Cave.