Dissent

Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea, such as a government's policies, or an entity – such as an individual or political party which advocates such policies. The term's antonyms include agreement, consensus (when all or nearly all parties agree on something) and consent (when one party agrees to a proposition made by another).

Sourced

• Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
  • Various; misattributed to Thomas Jefferson.
  • Earliest source The Use of Force in International Affairs, (Philadelphia: Friends Peace Committee, 1961), 6, and popularized by various users in the 1960s:
    • If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?
  • Other form by Howard Zinn, Dissent In Pursuit Of Equality, Life, Liberty And Happiness: An Interview With Historian Howard Zinn by Sharon Basco, TomPaine.com, July 03 2002:
    • While some people think that dissent is unpatriotic, I would argue that dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

• We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.
  • Edward R. Murrow, See It Now, broadcast of 9 March 1954 on CBS TV

• Political dissension is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism: but still it is a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as of the philosopher, to exclude its influence if possible, from social life. The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be able so far to perfect the principles of society as that political opinions shall, in its intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may well be doubted.
  • Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 29 May 1797

• Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.
  • Robert H. Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) at 641.

• There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, "I disagree." We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President.
  • Natalie Merchant in The Nation (15 July 1991)

• You can actively flee, then, and you can actively stay put.
  • Erik Erikson, Insight and Responsibility, New York, W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1964, p. 86; cited in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, p. 49, footnote 5.

• It's beyond me how anybody can look at these protestors and call them anything other than what they are: anti-American, anticapitalist, pro-Marxist communists.
  • Rush Limbaugh, speaking about political dissent (February 2003), quoted in — Hunt, Jim (2009). They Said What?: Astonishing Quotes on American Democracy, Power, and Dissent‎. Polipoint Press. p. 22. ISBN 0981709168. 

• The right to dissent is the only thing that makes life tolerable for a judge of an appellate court... the affairs of government could not be conducted by democratic standards without it.
  • William O. Douglas, America Challenged (1960).

• The first opinion the Court ever filed has a dissenting opinion. Dissent is a tradition of this Court... When someone is writing for the Court, he hopes to get eight others to agree with him, so many of the majority opinions are rather stultified.
  • William O. Douglas, New York Times interview, (29 October 1973).

• It is often hard to secure unanimity about the borders of legislative power, but that is much easier than to decide how far a particular adjustment diverges from what the judges deem tolerable. On such issues experience has over and over again shown the difficulty of securing unanimity. This is disastrous because disunity cancels the impact of monolithic solidarity on which the authority of a bench of judges so largely depends.
  • Learned Hand, The Bill Of Rights (1958), p. 72.

• In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.
  • Learned Hand, Oliver Wendell Holmes lecture delivered at Harvard (1958); quoted in The Rhetoric of Our Times (1969) by J. Jeffery Auer, p. 124.

• There is no room for dissent on the left. The moment you give into their framework, you surrender your individualism.
  • Tammy Bruce, former member of NOW's national board of directors, to Columbia University students as quoted by Dan Healey in "and Feminism Combined - Tammy Bruce, an Openly Gay, Pro-Choice, Pro-Clinton, Pro-Bush Conservative, Defies Labels", Columbia Spectator (April 6, 2005)

• The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. it is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable exceptions, most American newspapers carry very little news. Their main concern is advertising.
  • I. F. Stone, The Haunted Fifties (1963)

• All protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principles of resistance: it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.
  • Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation with America, The Thirteen Resolutions (1775)

• No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
  • Barbara Ehrenreich, "Family Values," The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1991)

• A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.
  • Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition, aph. 40 (1973)

• No doubt, there are those who believe that judges-and particularly dissenting judges-write to hear themselves say, as it were, I I I. And no doubt, there are also those who believe that judges are, like Joan Didion, primarily engaged in the writing of fiction. I cannot agree with either of those propositions.
  • William J. Brennan, Jr., In Defense of Dissents, 37 Hastings L. J. 427, 428 (1985-1986).

• In a society where dissenting viewpoints are suppressed, those viewpoints are potent and dangerous... Where dissent is tolerated, it rapidly becomes quaint and is viewed as un-sophisticated; people merely amuse themselves with the expression of contrary opinion.
  • Oscar, in Melmoth by David Sim, p. 41, 1991

• Leading fosters a working atmosphere that stimulates an open exchange of ideas and fosters dissent. People should show a genuine concern for one another and treat one another with fairness, as peers and friends. With such an atmosphere it should be a pleasure to come to work.
  • Marvin Bower, (1997). The Will to Lead. p. 131, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, ISBN 0-87584-758-7

• A simple way to determine whether the right to dissent in a particular society is being upheld is to apply the town square test: Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society.
  • Natan Sharansky, The Case for Democracy, pp. 40–41, 2004, with Ron Dermer

• Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
  • Jacob Bronowski, Science and Human Values (1956, 1965), Part 3: "The Sense of Human Dignity", §5
• Dissent is the mark of freedom.
  • Jacob Bronowski, Science and Human Values (1956, 1965)

• Thought that is silenced is always rebellious. Majorities, of course, are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.
  • Alan Barth, The Loyalty of Free Men (1951)

• The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
  • John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

• Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionaries and rebels—men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech at Columbia University's bicentennial, 31 May 1954, Public papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1961), p. 524

Unsourced

• The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.
  • Thomas Jefferson
• If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.
  • Henry Steele Commager

See also

• Civil disobedience
• Discord
• Freedom of speech
• Rebellion