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• TRUTP S M
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any citiren t-rho hrs rood o do■ r-o. books Pc.
docs not bvii-. vc irefebgoblins is sure to
be a ro ri-£■ jicc ss... Fo rb.rsf. of ,r-s,-riceie
life cseared the?-merciless fusillade -of
Foncken* s nockery: thc church, T-Tomcn, the
home, the Y110 s, ..the .Dress, 'mother love,
notriotisr. Fc lambasted the courts, the -'
Congress mid the. clergy. JTc named judges
he considered crooked, politicians he con
sidered sccun d rc. 1 s, refcrr.crs 11c consider^d
fr^'- ds, ,'nd. ministers he- considered idiots...
He hod- the- shrorrest eve .since k ^rk Turin
for Girthing”th vt partook of the phony or
that thro-'toned to. tre ad on, tlr' t holiest
of holy e.rO' nd: individual free dor; .
It is o. testimonial to the Aroericon^yay
of life that hen eh en yas .neither tried for
treason nor lynched. You may yonder hoy
he escaped it. Yet there is..no real cause
for yonder. The secret lies in that con
sensus that is at the heart of uhat ye.
mean by freedom: e defend the rights of
those me hate or fc y or despise.
The creates t political invention known
to the race of man is, the idea that men
shall be protected in their .scared’right
to criticize the state itself: That every
man shall be, free, to thin' yhat he pie ses
read rhat he pleases, say rhat he oleas.es
so long- as it is rhithin the bounds of
decency and does not incite others to vio
lence.
The entire structure of our freedom
rests on political ground rules that sep
arate, opini "'ns from crimes, t' -nr-'omular
from tl\e subversive, the disturbing from :
the dangerous. To distinguish ideas from
deeds , yhat a man says from 'hat %e does,
is somethins tyro ts, li natic, dcraco.ip-es
•and Communists c-av-pt understand, being
!too -fanatical, to tole-rate -rguraenty the.
•political barbarians -punish. men for ask
ing questions and slaughter the; • for rais
ing d 01 bis.
It is one of the crooning ironies of
politics that the far Left and the far
Higlit have more in common ■ ith each other
than either does vith the middle. For both
tiie radical Left and the reactionary Tight
are enemies of moderation. They talk of
freedom, but are driven by fanaticism.
They may espouse democracy, la t do not
begin to understand its very 1 cart: civil
liberties. If ye visualised, politics not
as a straight line, vith a left and right,
but as a circle-the far Left and Light
rou.ia meet, as they sho^la, For they have
this in common: They onId use force to
enforce their prejudices. They fell threa
tened by diversity. They T-ould, if they
could, beat up, imprison, deport or hill
a good many of us.
Democracy is the only politics.! system
that ashes it possible to effect chain e
rithort violence. Under no other from of
government is it possible to re'rr~n;o the
structure of poorer without killing- off
s o: e r coni e, 0 i s on f r n chi sing othe rs,
jailing or culling a. good many. (The Dri
tish can:l@giulate more sleeping changes
on shorter notice than me can, since Par
liament is not hobbled by constituti nal
chains; re nay all thank God th .t Congress
is.)
/
i
TTe govern ourselves- by rules that des
sert be the T_ayc in which ire can even re
move our governors, Did a society of max
imum liberties works only because ire ac
cent the obligation to check the natural
human impulse to beat up those ire dislike,
imprison those ire fear, or murder those
ve hate. Democracy works because of ten
central ideas that ire have made sacred:
L. Political poTTer is power over others,
and power over others must always be wat
ched, guarded, circumscribed.
?To man, no group, no sect, no party
ever has a monopoly on truth, virtue and
competence.
.'.'.his means that no man, no group,
no narty is wise enough and good enough
and snne enought to be entrusted rith too
much, power. For good men are aften'silly
and competent men are often -ricked, and
even the combination of virtue and. ability
in no tray quarantees judgment or reason
or sanity. Good intentions do not necess
arily lead to good results; purity of
heart is not always linked to political
skill or emotional balance. Human history
is studded <hith. tragqdy precisely because
too often have ! 'tsin'c^q ", and pasfeiohabe ; -
men seized the power(or bamboozled' o'tKers
into letting them exercise it)todo rhat
they happen to think best.
4. Those we like may be wrong; those
ue hate may be right. The only way to find
out what is best, for whom, is to let the
ideas and the theories, however disturbing,
roll out in uninterrupted contest. The
right to talk creates,the -duty, to listen.
5. Freedom elites'- (mder dogma.; In a. free
society, no person or group or policy can
be permitted to exist beyond scrutiny,
criticism, even ridicule, ’hen dogma gains
eno’ gh power to uuni-sh tKosjg...who oppose it,,
it becomes fanaticism. "hen dogma is in
vested. T”ith enough power to suppress opposI-*
tion, it becomes tyranny, ind when men are
afaid to say what they think—however co
ckeyed or unpopular it nay be-freedom has
been violated, for it has been corrupted
by fear.
6. The only thing worse than a too pow
erful minority is a too powerful majority.
Government must at all costs protect all
minorities against any majority-including
the government itself, --.m..
7. Hvef'y man has -a right to opportunity,
to respect, to fair -treatment under-- law.,
Justice is a right, not a favor. No man ,
shall be penalized for his parentage or
his pigmentation or his faith.
8. ITo man, hoirever disagreeable, or dan
gerous, shall be denied an open trial, on
specific charges* Fo nan shall, be judged
by the same neo-^le rho accuse him. Every
man has the right to confront those uho ...
accuse him and try to prove' them Hears.
9v It is up to the authorities to prove
a man aunity; it is not up to a man to
■'rovr : himself innocent.
10. the trrie and final purpose of gov
ernment is so to arrange life that each
nm cm do uhr.t- he nleanes-so long..as it
does not harm or menace others.
This decalogue of freedom rests, of
course, on the conviction that government
on s t pro tect n en f ron e ach. • o ther’ s stumi
dity, greed and ~»as cions.
/ Continued on Tage.12