Human Rights Quote (54): What To Do With the Intolerant?

John Rawls

(source)

The liberties of the intolerant may persuade them to a belief in freedom. This persuasion works on the psychological principle that those whose liberties are protected by and who benefit from a just constitution will, other things equal, acquire an allegiance to it over a period of time. John Rawls

I’ve written before about the vulnerability of democracies and how they can be perverted by the intolerant or the enemies of freedom who use the democratic freedoms against democracy; or about the need to be intolerant of the intolerant. But this quote gives another, perhaps more hopeful perspective.