We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.
Interpretation
Dissent should be valued as a form of loyalty to one's principles rather than seen as a betrayal.
Edward R. Murrow's quote emphasizes the distinction between dissent and disloyalty, arguing that challenging authority or expressing disagreement can actually stem from a deep loyalty to one's beliefs and values. This underscores the importance of open dialogue and critical thinking within a society, suggesting that questioning and dissent are vital components of a healthy and functioning democracy.
In practice
In a conversation about civic responsibility, I might say, 'We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.'
We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles.
Speaking of Sir Winston Churchill: He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.
There are some militarists who say: βWe are not interested in politics but only in the profession of arms.β It is vital that these simple-minded militarists be made to realize the relationship that exists between politics and military affairs. Military action is a method used to attain a political goal. While military affairs and political affairs are not identical, it is impossible to isolate one from the other.
Look: I don't want to live with a nuclear Iran. I would like to make it uncomfortable for them to seek it.
It is an axiom of political science in the United States that the sole means of neutralizing the effects of newspapers is to multiply their number.
Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.
Now and always, hard-line policy and those who embrace it are vessels for darker forces that are at once self-cannibalizing and combustible. No good can come of them. They are unsustainable because their sense of righteousness denies human worth.
There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.
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