Rizal’s Works: An Inner Depth of Suppressing one’s Opinion

We all know that people have different points of view when it comes to their perceptions or opinions on different things. An example of that would most likely be, should our country be a presidential country like The United States of America or should our country be a parliamentary country like The United Kingdom? Of course, people would be having different thoughts on that, and they are going to come up with myriads of reasons to why they’ve come up with that answer. And for John Stuart Mill, everyone’s opinion matters, especially the ones with the unpopular opinion.

John Stuart Mill was someone who believed that everyone, rich or poor, was entitled to their very own opinions. John Stuart Mill also believed that freedom of expression is valuable for two main reasons. The first reason would be that the unpopular opinion could actually be the right one. Second, if the opinion is wrong, refuting it or to prove that the opinion is actually wrong will allow people to better understand their opinions. Either way, it’s a win-win situation right? So there’s nothing wrong if we listen to one’s opinion. But on the other hand, we know that the opinions of some people could actually be a deadly blow to some people, it’s more of like a deadly weapon. Like for instance, Jose Rizal’s two novels were deadly for the Spaniards because Jose Rizal’s novels had finally opened the eyes of the “indios” of how cruel the Spanish Regime was in our country. Of course, the Spanish didn’t allow Rizal’s views through his two novels take over the minds of the “indios” and make them revolt against the Spanish regime, so they decided to suppress that by putting Rizal to death. Unfortunately, after that, people started a revolution to overthrow the Spaniards and the rest was history.

But here’s the thing that made me think, Mill said that “an individual may do anything they wish as long as that the individual’s actions do not harm others…” as I mentioned, Rizal’s view was deadly to the Spaniards, so was he the one actually violating Mill’s idea? To think about it, yes his views were deadly to the Spaniards, but after when I think things over again I came up with, but isn’t the Spanish regime far worse in inflicting more harm to the so called “indios” more than that of