The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1959-08-07
Truth Is
u. S. Basis
JOSEPH BREIC-

The deadliest danger in the kind of thinking dis
played In the US, Supreme Courts "Chatterley' de-
clslon is thlS-that anarchy in the mind is ultimately
fatal to the American way Of life.
1t has been fashionable of late to describe that
way of life as democracy" Up to a point, this is all
rlgnt; but the US. is a constitutional republic.
1t has also been fashionable to talk as if the cen
trail genius Of the American way is simply liberty. But
the central genius is liberty dedicated to truth.
The Founding Fathers were not men who threw
up their hands with Plate, asking cynically, what
is truth?" They were firmly convinced Of certain
truths, and courageous enough to pledge their lives.
fortunes and sacred honor to defend them.
There is not the faintest hint of blandly-smiing
Indifference to truth in the Declaration of 1ndepend-
ence. Only men of deepest conviction could nave Wit
ten:
we hold these truths TO he self-evident; fhat all
men are created equal; thai they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inaIienable rights that 10
secure these rights, governments are Instituted among
men
The heart of the evil in the "Chatterley' decision
is not the fact that it permits shoWings of movie that
advocates adultery (which is a crime) as proper be-
haVlOr IN certain circumstances. This movie will have
its little day, and die.
The heart Of the evil is not even the manacling
of government, so that laWmakers-if the ruling
stands unmodified-will be forever prevented from
doing anything to curb the dissemination of any lie,
and every lie, no matter how poisonous.
That, certainly, is a deadly thing. But deadlier
still is the establishment of the principle that law and
government have no authority and no responsibility in
the realm of ideas and their propagation. q
The truly terrible error here is the failure to per-
ceive that order In the body polite cannot rest upon
anarchy in the intellect, and that as a man thinketh,
SO he will eventually be, and act.
Anarchy in thought can lead nowhere but to an
archy in life. At this point we reach the central de-
structiveneSs of bland overtolerance Of falsehood.
THIS CENTRAL destructiveness turks in a fact
demonstrated by all the experience of the human race
that the one thing mankind cannot at all endure is
anarchy.
In every situation in mans long history in which
anarchy has begun to hold sway, humanity has turned
swiftly and often violently to authority.
Nor has mankind stood upon the order of its GO
ing. Even deSpotic authority has been found prefer
able to no order at all. Humanity can abide tyranny
more patiently than chaos. Chaos cannot be tolerated
at all.
life, stands firmly upon certain huge agreements about
truth and right. Destroy those agreements, and you
destroy America, and invite dictatorship. You open the
way to the man on the white horse.
AMERICAN REEDoM is the orderly and author
ity-respecting liberty of a people who firmly hold GER
tain basic nciples-including, if it comes to that,
the principle that adultery is wrong. not only in it.
self but as a subversiVe attack on the family as the
foundation without which no nation can long survive.
1t is all very we'll to say that we allow an oc-
caslonal atheist, say, to rant on a Soapbox; and to
preen ourselves upon our tolerance for so dong. But
1t is a far cry from an atheist on a sOapboX to the pro-
duction of movies preaching subversive and criminal
falSehoodS to tens of millions of American young peo-
pie.
Freedom of speech and the press are precious
goods; but neWspapermen would be the first to assert
that their freedom gives them no right to serve false
hood rather than truth. And to hold government help
less to do anything about massive falSehood is to I'm.
peril most gravely everything that makes America
what America b~elovedly is.