Narain D. Batra is professor of communications at Norwich University, Vermont, where he teaches media law, ethics, television criticism, and social media and the Internet.

• PREFACEHOW THE BOOK WAS BORNPrometheus and ConfuciusHuman Rights and Julian AssangeACKNOWLEDGMENTINTRODUCTIONTHE MAKING OF THE ASPIRATIONAL SOCIETYPromethean PossibilitiesCHAPTER ONETURBULENCE AND HARMONY The Cauldron Of CreativityPragmatismPursuing The Freedom Trail Wherever It LeadsCourt RulingBut Thank God: For Every Jerry Falwell There’s Larry FlyntCrude And Outrageous Speech As CorrectiveThe First Amendment Is More Than Free SpeechHistorians Need LessonDoubtfully TrustingHow Unscripted Life Enables Innovative BehaviorState of ParanoiaHow The First Amendment Creates Mongrelized OffspringCreative DisequilibriumWarningWhen US Supreme Court Woke UpFreedom From Irrational FearTyranny Of Self-CensorshipCHAPTER TWOHOW FREE SPEECH STIMULATES INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR The Re-Making Of Motherhood And Other WondersRight Of ProcreationMitigating Reproductive ConstraintsSeeking Answers Freedom From Revealed TruthEternal Optimism For Making The World A Better PlaceSustainable InnovationCivic ParticipationOpenness makes Americans inventiveGlobal Brain-Grid EmergingCHAPTER THREETELLING STORIES TO A HYPER-CONNECTED WORLDA Vigorous and Wide Open NewsosphereUnfiltered and Unbridled HarassmentA Hazardous Vocation Balancing Competing InterestsTrust, But VerifyOutrageously TransparentContinuum of the Fake and the Real Unreliable Sources News: Simulation and dissimulation Dark Journalism Social Media and Online Civic journalism Empowering Citizen Journalists Exaggerated Fears News Media and InnovationExceptionalThe Power of Weak Ties Building Trust in Social NetworksCan Social Networking Create Social Capital Despite Weak Ties?WikiLeaks’ ChallengeMaking SenseNew ChallengesCHAPTER FOURCOMMERCIAL SPEECH AND INNOVATIONThe Soft Power of Aspirational BrandsStatus ChangeChallenging AuthorityCommercial Speech and the Public InterestLanguage and Innovation Fired Up and Get GoingBeautiful DeceptionsTurning Ideas Into AssetsCulture of Aspiration and the Arab StreetMashing UpBusiness Methods Patenting Corporate Speech CHAPTER FIVEFREE PRESS AND MARKETPLACE FUNDAMENTALISMThe Dark Side of the Aspirational SocietySources of Corruption Insatiable at the TopHit the Numbers or You are Out The Moral Neutrality of NumbersWhen Drug Companies Sell Snake OilFree Press and Corporate BehaviorWho Do You Call When Nothing Works?CHAPTER SIXCHINA’S AUTHORITARIANISM CHALLENGES AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM The Roar of the DragonVicious Capitalist Energy Extreme NationalismNo GratitudePacific Ocean IssueCan China Challenge America Without Embracing the First Freedoms? PragmatismDissidents in the Digital AgeHuman Rights Virtual Struggle Cyber ResistanceThe Persistence of China’s DissentersWill Information Be Free in China?Abundance Without FreedomHalf-hearted FreedomThe Future Is Dragon. Do You Hear It Coming?Points of Light Innovation in a Closed SocietyCHAPTER SEVENPOLITICAL INNOVATIONS OF THE ASPIRATIONAL SOCIETYTo Live And Die In Freedom That’s America But What About The Rest Of The World? The Decider-Warrior PresidentWar Games and DiplomacyAwesome Temptations of Neo-ImperialismBeware the Power of the UnexpectedBuilding Pillars of Freedom on Soft PowerHow Does Soft Power Arise? The First Amendment and the Aspirational SocietyJust and Meritorious SocietyThe Flight Of The Black Swan To The White HouseThe Aspirational Society Must Not ShrugEmpathy and ImperialismPropagandaCONCLUSIONFREE SPEECH AS ENERGY Pushing the Boundaries of Permissible Thought DilemmaDependent Origination of the Aspirational SocietyNOTESINDEXABOUT THE AUTHOR

Discovering the truth, voting wisely, and realizing one’s identity; it is a trio of well established justifications for protecting speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, corresponding, respectively, to free-expression theories known as the marketplace of ideas, democratic self-governance, and autonomy/human dignity. To this list, Narain D. Batra now adds another important free-speech value—innovation—in his timely and example-packed tome, The First Freedoms and America’s Culture of Innovation. . . .One strength of this book is the author’s ability to surf the pop-cultural realm to illustrate larger points about free speech, communication technologies, innovation and aspirational society. . . .Batra knows how to turn clever, memorable, and inspiring phrases about the importance of the First Amendment. Free-speech scholars going forward likely will cite and sprinkle some of these chestnuts into their own writing when addressing the power and purposes of the First Amendment. . . .Ultimately, Batra makes a valuable contribution not only to the literature on free expression, but also to the workings of modern American society. With time, the innovation value of the First Amendment might well take its place alongside established First Amendment theories.