ght for the Day // (Steven Hayward).
This week’s 3WHH Podcast entailed a heated debate about the limits of free speech. Here’s a bit of Harry Jaffa’s 1964 essay “On the Nature of Civil and Religious Liberty”:
“Regarding freedom of speech and closely related freedoms such as association, petition, and assembly, the question that keeps arising is: Can we deny these freedoms Communists or their agents or coadjutors without ourselves ceasing, through that denial and to the extent of that denial to constitute a free society?” Is it not possible that if we allow Communists to take full advantage of civil liberties, they may be able to weaken or confuse our resistance and allow Communism to succeed? . .
“Does a libertarian society prove false to itself if they deny civil liberties to Communists, Nazis or any other person who would use these liberties as a way to destroy the free society?” It doesn’t, I believe. This is not a recommendation or justification for any particular approach to dealing with people of this description. What is right in each case depends on the facts. I am only referring to principles and not their application. . .
“Communists as well as Nazis have no right to free speech in a free society. It is not wise or practical to stop them using it. I believe the United States is a sufficiently civilized, sufficiently stable country to support almost any form of national socialism, Communism or cannibalism.
Are we confident enough that American universities can withstand the constant drive of academic anti-Semites at Berkeley and elsewhere?
