John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)

I read Mill’s 1859 seminal statement on democratic values and moral and political thought on three separate occasions over my extended educational experience: the first in the context of its focus on freedom of speech as a journalism major in a community college; the second in a political thought class as a history and political science dual major while I pursued my bachelor’s degree; and the third during law school while working on my student note. That latest reading was more than a quarter of a century ago. Since then, I learned that Mill’s wife, Harriet Taylor, contributed significantly to the thoughts expressed in this influential essay. Another woman hidden historical figure.

The essay seems even more vibrant today than it did in my earlier readings. The Mills’s focus on the free key freedoms – speech, thought, action, and association – seems hardly surprising in the 21st century. These freedoms are the cornerstone of democracy as an antidote to tyranny. And these freedoms are currently under attack even in the United States, the greatest successful democracy in the history of the world. At least until now. The Mills’s liberalism challenged the Victorian orthodoxy based on stuffy social customs and has been advanced by great American thinkers and jurists who would be appalled to be considered anything “liberal”. Indeed, the values set forth in their essay form the basis of my own strong convictions about the legitimate authority and limits of government vis-à-vis the individuals who are served by it, and as embodied in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Its relevance today cannot be overstated.

I have made it my business, though, to read essays critical of the Mills's work, so I went down that rabbit hole and have gathered some further reading, including but not limited to Liberty, Equality, Fraternity by James Fitzjames Stephens (a contemporary of Mills, I believe). I have my own criticisms, but they are minor, and would like to see what others have to say.… (mer)