Truth shared

Sy Safransky is the founder and editor emeritus of The Sun, which publishes essays, stories, poems, etc., by current writers. The October, 2024 issue carries an essay he wrote in 1986, “Enemies of Freedom.” In it, Safransky recalls an incident from years earlier when the “liberal arts college dedicated to the habits of freedom” he attended banned a Communist from speaking on campus. Here us a paragraph in which he reflects not he meaning of freedom. I especially like the John Adams quote with which he concludes.

“I began to consider more keenly the perils of limiting dissent in a democracy, of skimping on freedom as if there where only so much to go around. The real patriots, it seemed to me, weren’t those who insisted that truth, their truth, had to be defended at any cost—or who suggested, with a wink at history, that our rights would best be protected by stripping us of a few. Democracy asks for a sturdier faith, asks us to trust that in the free discussion of ideas, truth will more often than not win out. What a dangerous notion, to those who pride above all else security and a predictable tomorrow. It is, after all, as risky as love! Yet, miraculously, among people of different backgrounds and temperaments, different races and religions—people as different as you and I—the spirit of truth somehow prevails. Not my truth or your truth, but something shared, an understanding among equals, at once mystical and practical, that allows us to live together. Like a friendship or a marriage, democracy depends on communication and trust; yes, we know the risks. ‘Virtue,’ as John Adams observed, ‘is not always amiable.’ If we’re free to love, we’re free to hate—free to be Communists and Nazis and Democrats and Republicans and every kind of fool. Adams also wisely advised, ‘There’s a danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with the power to endanger the public liberty.’”