In this short essay, Welsh philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell wrote about his understanding of free thought, liberty of the press and state (official) propaganda. The text is readable, clear and straightforward. Liberty of thought and speech is a hard feature to achieve and harder to maintain. States and social arrangements have distinct ways to suppress it. Russell points to some of it and gives some tolls to overcome it, in order to achieve better results, provided we all agree in the goodness of free thought. ( )

A short lecture given by Russell on the topic of intellectual freedom and propaganda which props up the state. Russell's solution is less centralized control of education (score one for conservatives) and keeping religion completely out as a factor in education (yay for liberals!). The entire piece is marred in the final sentence where Russell takes a rip at "Negroes and Paupans." This is the second piece of his I've read with overtly racist statements, and while I still chalk it up to white privilege of the early 20th century, I'm more willing to accept that sort of thing in fiction, not so much when dealing with a liberal philosopher. ( )