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The Eight Values of Free Expression

There are eight different values of free expression when talking about freedom of speech: Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. The value that I believe has the highest amount of significance is Promote Innovation. The "Promote Innovation" can be theorized as "a community in which free speech is valued and protected is likely to be a more energized, creative, interesting society as its citizens actively fulfill themselves in many diverse and interesting ways."

I think this is the most significant value of expression because without it, we wouldn't progress as a society or even a country. Without it, some of the other values wouldn't even exist. A a society, our use of freedom of speech is one of the most important freedoms that we have. When we share our ideas with each other, we are creating our marketplace of ideas. Our ideas as individuals flow freely, the good ones and the bad ones: and it makes the good ones better. When we value each other's ideas and opinions, we create a space that promotes progress and innovation, and in turn, motivates us to improve ourselves as individuals AND a society as a whole.

If freedom of speech isn't valued, especially in this day and age, we would still be stuck in the mindset that our society was in decades ago, and we wouldn't be promoting innovation, but promoting the reversal of the progress we've made and BEEN making for hundreds of years. When we promote innovation, we promote our society to delve into different areas of improvement, and it forces us to become more creative, and creativity turns into innovation. 

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