“Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making...Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience above all liberties.”—Milton
“The easier it is for people to speak freely, and the more people actually do so, the more likely it is the truth will emerge from the fray.”—Daniel Johnson
"We must have a citizenery capable of seeing through lies and deception; understanding the principles of self government in the pursuit of justice; and distinguishing between comfort and actual freedom.”— Peter Wood, NAS president
The great poet Milton was horrified to find that those he had so vigorously defended in the name of freedom were themselves behaving autocratically when they had the power to do so. George Orwell wrote that what Milton was expressing was an experience that has happened in history again and again, rather monotonously, in all subsequent revolutions.
And today we find that demonic urge in the attempt to silence, to censor, and to suppress that has gripped our liberal elites, the class that has most to lose by succumbing to the gagging mania. The very institutions that should guard freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of conscience most jealously have been the vanguard of what some call the "Great Intimidation”(1.). It is often based on charges so vague or even outright lies as to be impossible to falsify and hence to refute(2). In short its a modern day witch-hunt aimed at closing down debate.
Those who demand that their ideological beliefs should be imposed on others by force are not exercising their right to free speech, but closing it down for others. Freedom of speech, of course within the wide bounds of “democratic” behavior, applies to everybody or to nobody. The former always, always should be the preference.
This creeping form of censorship begins with and ends with the burning of books.
“Whenever they burn books, they will in the end burn human beings too.”--Heinrich Hein
1. The most dangerous form of censorship is self-censorship
2. No good idea is the immune from bad use but that does not mean it is destined to serve that purpose.
