There is a biological, survival-motivated reason behind the fact that we are verbal, social herd animals.
Thought, speech, dialogue and the market are learning mechanisms to weed out dangerous ideas. The prefrontal cortex was born out of the motor cortex, and is where rationality lives.
This applies to political structures, economies, social justice movements, parent-child relationships, friendships, marriages, inventions, business strategy, religion, law, and philosophy.
We explain our thoughts through our speech. We can try out different futures by discussing ideas - we can “try on” our decisions by running simulations in discourse, of potential actions before we implement them. This allows us to find possible consequences, probable rewards, and avoid the dangerous ones much of the time, by interfacing with someone who will provide feedback and additional ideas.
Without trying on the bad ideas, verbally, before execution, we would have to ACTUALLY execute those ideas to figure out where they might lead. Action came first physiologically, from the motor cortex, and then the prefrontal cortex branched out of there, allowing us to think before acting.
Without free speech, there is no clear thinking.
Listen to the three minute explanation here:
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