I’m reblogging this as I think it’s important even out of context.
I love the 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill. Fair enough, his writing style is more arid than the Gobi Desert, but he was a brilliant thinker who was progressive, brave and years ahead of his time,
In 1869, Mill wrote an essay ‘On the Subjection of Women‘ which went completely against the prevailing attitude within Victorian and mainland European society as to convention of the roles of men and women in society. He was a vocal and active campaigner for the rights of women, yet acknowledged that by making women free, this would achieve the same for men too.
Mill was a free thinker who believed in the freedoms of opinion and speech. He was virulently anti-censorship. In 1859’s ‘On Liberty’, Mill encourages the reader to think about how popular opinion, or convention, may be wrong (Mill knew the value of dissent!). He acknowledged that a good reason to debate popular opinion is that, of course, it may be wrong (think also of ‘the argument from majority’),
He argued that if popular opinion is not debated, it becomes a dead dogma: if truth is held merely as a prejudice, people will not understand it and so be unable to argue against it. Crucially, dissent keeps truth (and ideas) alive: if you can’t defend your position, you don’t know what it means.
Freedom of speech was incredibly important to Mill, even to the point of him stating that it is wrong to deny people the freedom of speech and opinion, even when they are wrong. Denying the freedom to express an (incorrect) opinion also silences those who hold the correct opinion and are in the right. In his own words, it robs “the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation.”
Why is suppressing ideas hurtful? Well, one good reason, of course, is that people are fallible and corrigible, the ‘correct’ opinion may be wrong and no human being has the right to decide something for everyone else, no matter how confident an individual may be that they are right. Ignoring this could silence good, valid ideas.
