"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desireable?"
--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787

Typical Jeffersonian superficiality and naivete. It is terribly simple-minded to think that if we just let all ideas out in the public the truth will always triumph. What reason supports Jefferson's faith in this? It's silliness.

I don't believe government is a good judge of truth in general, and I love the Rights of Englishmen, including freedom and speech and of the press, but their justification isn't a faith that the truth always wins in public opinion.

"But is uniformity of opinion desireable?"

Of course. The possibility of any community (political or otherwise) depends on the uniformity of opinion, the community of pleasure and pain.

If the members of a community (family, friendship, nation) cease to agree on what is good, their association will come to an end.

Well, a certain degree of uniformity is desireable and a certain degree of variety is desirable, (assuming that humans will fall short of the whole, perfect truth)--right, Ralph?

That's right. We don't have to agree in everything, but we do have to agree on the important things if we're to associate (and what's important is determined by the nature of the association).

"Truth can stand by itself."

I agree w/ Skeptic, that sounds wise but is strikingly naive. C.S. Lewis's sci-fi novel "Perelandra" does a great job of explaining why truth in fact has a heck of a time withstanding lies. Think of it this way: the Liar can say anything at all to win the argument, but the honest lover of truth has to always only speak the true, which includes acknowledging the elements of truth in what the Liar says, thus giving the Liar the rhetorical edge in the "marketplace of ideas."

The positive aspect of this agnosticism is classical liberalism's general skepticism of government, which is still expressed by most conservatives today. The danger though in attempting to rid politics of the necessity of agreement on substantive ends (the common good) is social and political disintegration.

I would have to agree that Jefferson is off base in his specific stance. But his overall message, that the government should not be supporting specific policy points, is clearly a good one.

Edit: By which I mean the government as a general entity, not specific elected officials.

A little context might help in this case - Jefferson was talking about forced uniformity specifically in terms of religion and an official church.

In the same chapter, 17, is an even more oft-quoted phrase: "Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites."

Jefferson's Va Statute for Religious Freedom (1786, I believe) brought an end to the offical church of religion and forced support for the church through taxation. This led other states to disestablish their state churches. The last did so in 1818 I believe.

(Just adding this for those who may not be aware of the context of Jefferson's comment.)

Veronica: interesting context. But Jefferson is still being an idiot in the quote Dan gives and in the one you give, "Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion." Advantageous for what? Not the truth. In short, if one thinks that an opinion is true, important, and not obvious, then Jefferson's arguments for the good of diversity aren't worth much. I am committed to freedom of speech, press, and religious practice, but, once again, not for J's stupid reasons.