On the record
Experience shows that sometimes the sense of external oppression, as by censorship, acts as a challenge and arouses intellectual energy and excites courage.
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John Dewey
Source
gutenberg.orgJohn Dewey: “Experience shows that sometimes the sense of external oppression, as by censorship, acts as a challenge and arouses…”
Editor's note · Context
Dewey notes that external oppression can sometimes stimulate intellectual courage.
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But he does so only at the cost of repression of those of his potentialities which can be realized only through membership in other groups.
In short, private acts may be socially valuable both by indirect consequences and by direct intention.
They persist as emotional cries rather than as reasoned ideas.
For the very familiarity with the phenomena conceals their significance and blinds us to their relation to immediate political problems.