WEBVTT NOTE 6. The Blackmailer 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Part 3. Free Speech 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Chapter 6. The Blackmailer 3 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 At first glance, it is not hard to answer the question, is blackmail really illegitimate? 4 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.000 The only problem it would seem to pose is, why is it being asked at all? 5 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.000 Do not blackmailers, well, blackmail people? And what could be worse? 6 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.640 First, blackmailers prey on people's dark hidden secrets. 7 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:31.480 They threaten to expose and publicize them. 8 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:36.220 They bleed their victims and often drive them to suicide. 9 00:00:36.220 --> 00:00:42.120 We will find, however, that the case against the blackmailer cannot stand serious analysis, 10 00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:49.800 that it is based upon a tissue of unexamined shibboleths and deep philosophical misunderstandings. 11 00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:53.560 What exactly is blackmail? 12 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:56.280 Blackmail is the offer of trade. 13 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:03.280 It is the offer to trade something, usually silence, for some other good, usually money. 14 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:08.800 If the offer of the trade is accepted, the blackmailer then maintains his silence, and 15 00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:12.840 the blackmailee pays the agreed-upon price. 16 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:19.160 If the blackmail offer is rejected, the blackmailer may exercise his rights of free speech and 17 00:01:19.160 --> 00:01:21.340 publicize the secret. 18 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:23.660 There is nothing amiss here. 19 00:01:23.660 --> 00:01:29.420 All that is happening is that an offer to maintain silence is being made. 20 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:34.820 If the offer is rejected, the blackmailer does no more than exercise his right of free 21 00:01:34.820 --> 00:01:36.260 speech. 22 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:41.860 The sole difference between a gossip and a blackmailer is that the blackmailer will refrain 23 00:01:41.860 --> 00:01:44.620 from speaking for a price. 24 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:50.180 In a sense, the gossip is much worse than the blackmailer, for the blackmailer has given 25 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:53.860 Can the blackmailee a chance to silence him? 26 00:01:53.860 --> 00:01:57.540 The gossip exposes the secret without warning. 27 00:01:57.540 --> 00:02:03.220 Is not the person with a secret better off at the hands of a blackmailer than a gossip? 28 00:02:03.220 --> 00:02:05.940 With the gossip, all is lost. 29 00:02:05.940 --> 00:02:11.860 With the blackmailer, one can only gain, or at least be no worse off. 30 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:16.980 If the price requested by the blackmailer is lower than the secret is worth, the secret 31 00:02:16.980 --> 00:02:22.380 Holder will pay the blackmailer, this being the lesser of the two evils. 32 00:02:22.380 --> 00:02:28.100 He thus gains the difference to him between the value of the secret and the price of the 33 00:02:28.100 --> 00:02:29.300 blackmail. 34 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:34.700 When the blackmailer demands more than the secret is worth, his demand will not be met, 35 00:02:34.700 --> 00:02:37.100 and the information will become public. 36 00:02:37.100 --> 00:02:42.340 However, in this case, the person is no worse off with the blackmailer than he would have 37 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:44.980 been with the inveterate gossip. 38 00:02:44.980 --> 00:02:50.900 It is indeed difficult, then, to account for the vilification suffered by the blackmailer, 39 00:02:50.900 --> 00:02:58.180 at least compared to the gossip, who is usually dismissed with slight contempt and smugness. 40 00:02:58.180 --> 00:03:03.180 Blackmail need not entail the offer of silence in return for money. 41 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:05.920 This is only the best-known form. 42 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:10.380 But blackmail may be defined without reference to either. 43 00:03:10.380 --> 00:03:16.180 And in general terms, blackmail is the threat to do something, anything which is not in 44 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:21.280 itself illegal, unless certain demands are met. 45 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:27.520 Many actions in the public arena qualify as acts of blackmail, but instead of being vilified, 46 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.220 they have often attained a status of respectability. 47 00:03:31.220 --> 00:03:36.160 For example, the recent lettuce boycott is a form of blackmail. 48 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:42.320 Through the lettuce boycott, or any boycott, threats are made to retailers and wholesalers 49 00:03:42.320 --> 00:03:44.800 of fruits and vegetables. 50 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:51.000 If they handle non-union lettuce, the boycotters assert, people will be asked not to patronize 51 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.060 their establishments. 52 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:59.400 This conforms perfectly to the definition—a threat that something not in itself illegal 53 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:03.960 will take place unless certain demands are met. 54 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:10.280 But what about the threats involved in blackmail? This, perhaps more than anything else, is 55 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:17.200 the aspect of blackmail that is most misunderstood and feared. At first glance, one is inclined 56 00:04:17.200 --> 00:04:23.760 to agree that threats are immoral. The usual dictum against aggression, for example, warns 57 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:31.360 not only against aggression per se, but also against the threat of aggression. If a highwayman 58 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:39.360 When it costs a traveler, it is usually the threat of aggression alone that will compel obedience. 59 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.520 Consider the nature of threats. 60 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:46.720 When what is threatened is aggressive violence, the threat is condemnable. 61 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:52.560 No individual has the right to initiate aggressive violence against another. 62 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:57.960 In blackmail, however, what is being threatened is something that the blackmailer does have 63 00:04:57.960 --> 00:04:59.680 a right to do. 64 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:05.880 Whether it be exercising the right of free speech, or refusing to patronize certain stores, 65 00:05:05.880 --> 00:05:09.080 or persuading others to do likewise. 66 00:05:09.080 --> 00:05:13.360 What is being threatened is not in itself illegitimate. 67 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:19.800 It is, therefore, not possible to call the threat an illegitimate threat. 68 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:25.400 Blackmail can only be illegitimate when there is a special, foresworn relationship between 69 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:28.600 the blackmailer and the blackmailee. 70 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:35.440 A secret keeper may take a lawyer or a private investigator into his confidence on the condition 71 00:05:35.440 --> 00:05:39.480 that the confidence be maintained in secrecy. 72 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:44.960 If the lawyer or private investigator attempts to blackmail the secret keeper, that would 73 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:49.800 be in violation of the contract and therefore illegitimate. 74 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:56.600 However, if a stranger holds the secret without contractual obligations, then it is legitimate 75 00:05:56.600 --> 00:05:59.840 to offer to sell his silence. 76 00:05:59.840 --> 00:06:05.600 In addition to being a legitimate activity, blackmail has some good effects, litanies 77 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:08.480 to the contrary notwithstanding. 78 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:14.440 Apart from some innocent victims who are caught in the net, whom does the blackmailer usually 79 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:16.180 prey upon? 80 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:18.920 In the main, there are two groups. 81 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:25.160 One group is composed of criminals, murderers, thieves, swindlers, embezzlers, cheaters, 82 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:38.160 The other group consists of people who engage in activities not illegitimate in themselves, but which are contrary to the mores and habits of the majority. 83 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:45.160 Homosexuals, sadomasochists, sexual perverts, communists, adulterers, etc. 84 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:52.160 The institution of blackmail has beneficial but different effects upon each of these groups. 85 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:58.160 In the case of criminals, blackmail and the threat of blackmail serves as a deterrent. 86 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:02.160 They add to the risks involved in criminal activity. 87 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:10.160 How many of the anonymous tips received by the police, the value of which cannot be overestimated, 88 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:14.160 can be traced directly or indirectly to blackmail? 89 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:18.160 How many criminals are led to pursue crime on their own, 90 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:27.160 by their own, eschewing the aid of fellow criminals in jobs that call for cooperation out of the fear of possible blackmail. 91 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:37.160 Finally, there are those individuals who are on the verge of committing crimes, or at the margin of criminality, as the economist would say, 92 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:41.160 where the least factor will propel them one way or another. 93 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:47.160 The additional fear of blackmail may be enough, in some cases, to dissuade them from crime. 94 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:54.160 If blackmail itself were legalized, it would undoubtedly be an even more effective deterrent. 95 00:07:54.160 --> 00:08:03.160 Legalization would undoubtedly result in an increase in blackmail, with attendant depredations upon the criminal class. 96 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:12.160 It is sometimes said that what diminishes crime is not the penalty attached to the crime, but the certainty of being caught. 97 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:18.160 Although this controversy rages with great relevance in current debates on capital punishment, 98 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:23.160 it will suffice to point out that the institution of blackmail does both. 99 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:31.160 It increases the penalty associated with crime as it forces criminals to share part of their loot with the blackmailer. 100 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:38.160 It also raises the probability of being apprehended as blackmailers are added to police forces, 101 00:08:38.160 --> 00:08:44.160 Police Forces, Private Citizen and Vigilante groups, and other anti-crime units. 102 00:08:44.160 --> 00:08:52.160 Blackmailers, who are often members in good standing in the criminal world, are in an advantageous position to foil crimes. 103 00:08:52.160 --> 00:09:01.160 Their inside status surpasses even that of the spy or infiltrator who is forced to play a role. 104 00:09:01.160 --> 00:09:07.880 Legalizing blackmail would thus allow anti-crime units to take advantage of two basic crime-fighting 105 00:09:07.880 --> 00:09:15.600 adages at the same time, divide and conquer, and lack of honor among thieves. 106 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:21.040 It is quite clear that one important effect of legalizing blackmail would be to diminish 107 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:24.960 crime, real crime, that is. 108 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:29.860 The legalization of blackmail would also have a beneficial effect upon actions which do 109 00:09:29.860 --> 00:09:36.660 do not involve aggression, but are at variance with the mores of society as a whole. 110 00:09:36.660 --> 00:09:42.060 On these actions, the legalization of blackmail would have a liberating effect. 111 00:09:42.060 --> 00:09:47.500 Even with blackmail still illegal, we are witnessing some of its beneficial effects. 112 00:09:47.500 --> 00:09:53.460 Homosexuality, for instance, is technically illegal in some instances, but not really 113 00:09:53.460 --> 00:09:57.100 criminal since it involves no aggression. 114 00:09:57.100 --> 00:10:03.580 For individual homosexuals, blackmail very often causes considerable harm and can hardly 115 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:06.140 be considered beneficial. 116 00:10:06.140 --> 00:10:13.500 But for the group as a whole, that is, for each individual as a member of the group, 117 00:10:13.500 --> 00:10:20.700 blackmail has helped by making the public more aware and accustomed to homosexuality. 118 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:27.820 Forcing individual members of a socially oppressed group into the open or out of the closet cannot, 119 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:30.620 of course, be considered a service. 120 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:35.020 The use of force is a violation of an individual's rights. 121 00:10:35.020 --> 00:10:40.700 But still, it does engender an awareness on the part of members of a group of one another's 122 00:10:40.700 --> 00:10:42.620 existence. 123 00:10:42.620 --> 00:10:48.260 In forcing this perception, blackmail can legitimately take some small share of the 124 00:10:48.260 --> 00:10:56.260 in liberating people, whose only crime is a deviation from the norm in a non-criminal way. 125 00:10:56.260 --> 00:11:01.260 In reflecting on the old aphorism, the truth shall make you free. 126 00:11:01.260 --> 00:11:06.260 The only weapon at the disposal of the blackmailer is the truth. 127 00:11:06.260 --> 00:11:13.260 In using the truth to back up his threats, as on occasion he must, he sets the truth free, 128 00:11:13.260 --> 00:11:20.260 truth free, very often without intent, to do whatever good or bad it is capable of doing.