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| Milton Areopagitica inscription in NYC Library. |
Do we believe in our first amendment rights? While Milton wasn't radical enough to suggest that the people of England have complete freedom of the press, he did advocate for freedom to share and distribute ideas, because that's how we gain new knowledge. In his
Areopagitica, Milton argues that you can't get rid of problems by censorship and monitoring. It does more damage to truth than it does good. And if you don't have all sorts of information spreading, how are people to grow and determine what exactly truth is supposed to be? "Suppose we could expel sin by this means; look how much we thus expel of sin, so much we expel of virtue. For the matter of them both is the same; remove that, and ye remove them both alike. This justifies the high providence of God, who though he command us temperance, justice, continence, yet pours out before us even to a profuseness all desirable things and gives us minds that can wander beyond all limit and satiety."
Nowadays we don't have to worry about censorship, right? Think again.
