Suppression of Ideas Quotes
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims. However, we see in Spinoza the observations and foundations of what would become American and then international views of human rights.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Twain was referring to the social norms and customs which make us all edit our speech so that we do not hurt people unnecessarily or mislead someone. True freedom of speech of this kind would exist only if there were no social structure of morality. For almost all of us, the political freedom of speech is what we cherish. The right to say anything and to be edited only by ourselves and our own personal view of propriety is the political. See linked quote for his quotation about the social consequences of exercising freedom of speech.
This became a critically important quotation a half century after it was made. Judge Hand articulated the majority Western and Judeo-Christian value proposition between dissent and heresy. However, for the majority of the Islamic world, the reverse represents the majority value that is held. There is a minority in the West that agrees that avoidance of heresy is paramount and a minority of the Muslim world that agrees that the protection of dissent is the more important value, but the two civilizations were at odds in the 20th and 21st centuries. However, Islam is about 600 years younger than Christianity. 600 years ago, the Christian world agreed with the Muslim society and prevention of heresy was the more important value. The Reformation and the enlightenment followed by the world example of America produced a transformation and this may occur in the majority of the Islamic world in time.
