I shall seek to show, first, that liberty of thought and association--the two things are inextricably intertwined--is good in itself, and second, that its denial is always a means to the preservation of some special and, usually, sinister interest which cannot maintain itself in an atmosphere of freedom.
Laski argues that liberty of thought and association is inherently valuable and its denial serves sinister interests.
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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.
We grant it in religion to deny it in politics; we grant it in politics, to deny it in economic matters.
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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