Political Quotes

Harold J. Laski: “Since bodies like the Communist Party are in fact an announcement that some lives at least are shaped inadequately by…”

On the record
Since bodies like the Communist Party are in fact an announcement that some lives at least are shaped inadequately by the laws of a régime like our own, suppression seems to me an indefensible way of meeting that announcement.
Said by
Harold J. Laski

Editor's note · Context

Laski defends the existence of groups like the Communist Party, arguing that suppression is an inadequate response to their critique of the state.

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We grant toleration in one part of the field only to deny it in another.

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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.

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When attacks on liberty are political or economic, it is their motive rather than their nature that changes.

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