A life in words

  • Communism

    Question: Does insistence that communism not be part of [American] society unduly infringe on people’s rights of political expression and thus become the thing it is seeking to avoid? Proposition #1: Communism is not evil. Proposition #2: Solidarity against the evils of communism deprives people of rights. Proposition #2.1: Citizens have a right to seek…

  • Dance Party

    I went to a dance party tonight. It was almost against my will—I figured I would probably end up going, but when the time came I didn’t really feel like leaving the apartment. But, I had told some of the girls from the hosting apartment that I would see them there, so I felt like…

  • Crosswalk

    I was walking home from the library. As I was nearing crosswalk, a guy coming the other direction pushed the crossing button for me just in time for it to turn green as I arrived. I said thanks and went happily on home. It put a smile on my face. So push the button for…

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations…. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form….John Stuart Mill, On LIberty