On the record
No technique of suppression has so far been discovered which does not have the effect of giving wider currency to the thing suppressed than can be attained in any other fashion.
Said by
Harold J. Laski
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gutenberg.orgHarold J. Laski: “No technique of suppression has so far been discovered which does not have the effect of giving wider currency to the…”
Editor's note · Context
Laski claims that suppression techniques often backfire, leading to greater dissemination of the suppressed ideas.
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More from Harold J. Laski
It has been the historic character of persecution always to degrade the persecutor and to strengthen the persecuted by drawing attention to their claims.
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…
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.
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.
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