On the record
When attacks on liberty are political or economic, it is their motive rather than their nature that changes.
Said by
Harold J. Laski
Source
gutenberg.orgHarold J. Laski: “When attacks on liberty are political or economic, it is their motive rather than their nature that changes.”
Editor's note · Context
Laski points out that the motivations behind political and economic attacks on liberty are more significant than their actual nature.
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More from Harold J. Laski
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.
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.
To deny novelty or grievance a right of expression is a certain, if, indeed, an ultimate, validation of the truth they contain.
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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