Freedom of Expression April 24, 1930

John Dewey, April 24, 1930
“I can see no possibility of the development of a robust culture in literature or art commensurate with our natural resources, wealth, and physical strength without more freedom of thought than now exists here. Oppression in that direction does much to cultivate or to keep alive racial and religious distrust or hatreds that might otherwise die out.
“It is no disrespect to the founders of this nation to say that while they won freedom for themselves, they did not for their posterity. Every generation must fight for its own freedom, which with each generation will come in a new form.
“I don’t know why it is that we do not learn from the past, as we ought to, the dangerous futility of repressive measures in the matter of opinions. They never result in anything but violence and disorder, changing the current of constructive into destructive energy.”