Do people really wish to have freedom to choose and to determine their own lives?
Would they not be happier without the burdens of such freedoms?
Can they be trusted to use such freedom wisely?
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John Stuart Mill published his famous essay On Liberty in 1859. His argument for freedom for all individual thought and discussion, no matter how completely false or true the opinions, is especially relevant today when authoritarian elements abroad and in our own midst threaten to stifle hopes of realizing a democratic civilization for mankind.
In arguing against the repression of any opinion, Mill sets forth the following argument:
If an opinion is suppressed, and it is true, then we lose the opportunity of exchanging truth for falsehood.
If an opinion is suppressed, and it is false, then we lose the opportunity of obtaining a clearer conception of our own position.
Hence there shouldn't be any censorship of political speech.
Mill's essay, however, also raises another important problem for our own age, the problem of the tyranny of the majority.
This is the tyrannical tendency of society to impose its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them.
One should consider if the tyranny of the majority is an inseparable evil of democracy.
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We need to ask ourselves, what is the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.
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Do you believe that you really think for yourself? Did you come up with your attitudes, opinions and beliefs on your own, or are they continually being shaped and molded by someone else? Could it be possible that you and everyone around you is actually hooked into a real life version of “the matrix” that is constantly defining your reality for you?
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