The price of of repression is violence

“Repression may reduce overall dissent, but cause dissent that occurs to become more violent,” demonstrated with descriptive data from across Africa (Wallsworth).

via The take-aways from four dozen papers on conflict and fragility in Africa in under 2,000 words

The War on the Exceptional

Is there a war on the exception (radical) to the detriment of humanity?

Start with this “In Our Time” episode on Kierkegaard, the read these two essays by Anthony Judge:

Mill on Eccentricity

“In this age the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.”

Mill, John Stuart (2012-03-01). On Liberty (Dover Thrift Editions) (p. 56). Dover Publications. Kindle Edition.