Mill and Marx

I think it may fairly be said that the two nineteenth century documents which polarize the opposing philosophies of Marxism and liberalism are The Communist Manifesto and John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. The most famous sentence in Mill is a total rejection of all dictatorship, whether of the proletariat or of any other group: “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contradictory opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

This declaration is stirring and beautifully simple, but its justification is not quite as simple. Mill believed that to silence a man’s unpopular views was always a wrong to the man. That certainly is simple enough. But it was also a wrong to mankind. Mill adds that we can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion. How many liberals have flaunted their “scintilla of doubt” and nursed their slight twinge of uncertainty, to the undoing of their own cause? Kerensky is a tragic illustration of the fact that “no man can govern in the name of doubt.” Salazar said that. He did not die in exile.

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Colm Brogan

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I think it may fairly be said that the two nineteenth century documents which polarize the opposing philosophies of Marxism and liberalism are The Communist Manifesto and John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. The most famous sentence in Mill is a total rejection of all dictatorship, whether of the proletariat or of any other group: “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contradictory opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

This declaration is stirring and beautifully simple, but its justification is not quite as simple. Mill believed that to silence a man’s unpopular views was always a wrong to the man. That certainly is simple enough. But it was also a wrong to mankind. Mill adds that we can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion. How many liberals have flaunted their “scintilla of doubt” and nursed their slight twinge of uncertainty, to the undoing of their own cause? Kerensky is a tragic illustration of the fact that “no man can govern in the name of doubt.” Salazar said that. He did not die in exile.