 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
It is therefore important, if democracy is to be preserved, both to avoid the circumstances that produce general excitement, and to educate in such a way that the population shall be little prone to moods of this sort. Where a spirit of ferocious dogmatism prevails, any opinion with which men disagree is liable to provoke a breach of the peace. Schoolboys are apt to ill-treat a boy whose opinions are in any way odd, and many grown men have not got beyond the mental of schoolboys. A diffused liberal sentiment, tinged with skepticism, makes social co-operation much less difficult, and liberty correspondingly more possible.
Source: Power, a new social analysis, 1938
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