Wisdom can only emerge from the clash of contending views. From the passionate expression of deep and hostile beliefs. Plato said a life without criticism is not worth living. This is the seminal spirit of American democracy. It is this spirit which can be found among many of you, and it is this which is the hope of this nation.
It is not enough to allow dissent; we must demand it. For there is much to dissent from.
We must as thinking men distinguish between the right of dissent and the way to choose and exercise that right. It is not enough to justify or explain any actions by the fact that they are legal or constitutionally protected. The Constitution, after all, protects wisdom and ignorance, compassion, and selfishness alike. But that dissent which consists simply of dramatic and sporadic acts sustained neither by continuing labor or by reason; that dissent which seeks to demolish while lacking both the desire and the direction for rebuilding; that dissent which contemptuously or out of laziness casts aside the practical weapons and instruments of change and progress – that kind of dissent is merely self-indulgence. It is satisfying perhaps to those who make it but it will not solve the problems of our society.
Those calling for an end to dissent, who would stifle the voices of those with whom they disagree, would appear not to comprehend what this country is all about. For dissent and debate are the very heart of the American process.1
Very truly yours,
Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
This urgent message of the need for dissent is not just for for the American media. Dissent is the life’s blood of any functioning democracy. Without competing voices there is neither conscience nor remedy. For then we are left only with the dictates of the empowered, and the human spirit is withered and shredded. Dissent is the root of all human learning and advance. As Sophocles realized, “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride.”
