Football strategy does not originate in a scrimmage: it is useless to expect solutions in a political campaign.
Walter LippmannRead
When men are brought face to face with their opponents, forced to listen and learn and mend their ideas, they cease to be children and savages and begin to live like civilized men. Then only is freedom a reality, when men may voice their opinions because they must examine their opinions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that true civilization and freedom come from the confrontation and examination of differing opinions.
Walter Lippmann’s quote highlights the importance of engaging with opposing views as a means to grow and mature intellectually. It suggests that when individuals are compelled to listen, learn, and reconsider their beliefs in the presence of opposing arguments, they evolve from a primitive state of thought to a more enlightened and civilized state. In this process, freedom is realized not just as the ability to express one’s opinions but as a deeper understanding and critical examination of those opinions.
Themes
CivilizationFreedomOpinionGrowthUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about policy changes, one might use this quote to advocate for the importance of listening to opposing views.
More from Walter Lippmann
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The news and the truth are not the same thing.
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There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.
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The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class.
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The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.
Walter LippmannRead
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