Europe Doesn’t Get Free Speech

From the International Herald Tribune, an essay on the fact that Europe just doesn’t seem to get the idea of free speech.

The reality, as political philosopher Louis Hartz made clear a generation ago, is Europe is mired in ways of thinking that preceded the rise of capitalism, the philosophies of Locke and Mill, and the individualism that is so strong in America.

It has, in other words, a backward political culture.