No one will object to privilege for a Chatham; but privilege for the Duke of Grafton is a different thing, and Burke's doctrine safeguards the innumerable men of whom Grafton is the type in the hope that by happy accident some Chatham will one day emerge.
Laski contrasts the acceptance of privilege for notable figures with the problematic nature of privilege for lesser individuals.
Share
More from Harold J. Laski
We grant it in religion to deny it in politics; we grant it in politics, to deny it in economic matters.
Ultimately, that denial is always made upon the same ground: it is insisted that the doctrines or practices attacked are subversive of the civil order.
Each age finds that the incidence of freedom is significant at some special point, and there, once more, the lesson of freedom has to be learned.
It has been the historic character of persecution always to degrade the persecutor and to strengthen the persecuted by drawing attention to their claims.
Other voices in this conversation
