On the record
For the latter is not justified in preventing the expression of desire; it is justified only in preventing the realization of desire by violent means.
Said by
Harold J. Laski
Source
gutenberg.orgHarold J. Laski: “For the latter is not justified in preventing the expression of desire; it is justified only in preventing the…”
Editor's note · Context
Laski argues that the state should only intervene to prevent violence, not to suppress desires.
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The essence of the persecuting position is always that the persecutor has hold of truth and that he would betray its service by allowing it to be questioned.
Each age makes some idol in its own image and sacrifices upon its altar the freedom of those who refuse it worship.
To deny novelty or grievance a right of expression is a certain, if, indeed, an ultimate, validation of the truth they contain.
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
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