JS Mill and the Despotism of Progress

In this oppressive era of hushed voices, furtive glances and underground resistance, it is little wonder that John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty has become an inspiration and a recourse for a new generation. Since its publication in 1859, Mill’s brief on behalf of liberty of speech, opinion, expression and action has become a rallying philosophy for those experiencing conditions of constraint, limitation, and oppression — whether political, social, religious, academic or interpersonal. A century and a half after his death, Mill’s argument on behalf of an “atmosphere of freedom”, limited only when words or actions result in harm, is the governing philosophy of the liberal order.