News

After Court Restores Research Funding, Trump Still Has Paths to Target Harvard

News

‘Honestly, I’m Fine with It’: Eliot Residents Settle In to the Inn as Renovations Begin

News

He Represented Paul Toner. Now, He’s the Fundraising Frontrunner in Cambridge’s Municipal Elections.

News

Harvard College Laundry Prices Increase by 25 Cents

News

DOJ Sues Boston and Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 Over Sanctuary City Policy

Perry Gives Plan to Keep Democracy Vital

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

Suggesting a course of "proportional sacrifice," Ralph Barton Perry, Edgar Peirce Professor of Philosophy and chairman of American Defense, Harvard Group, outlined a plan for keeping our democracy vital while increasing defense in a letter to the New York Times yesterday.

"When the national safety requires sacrifices these sacrifices should be proportioned in accordance not merely with ability to pay but in accordance with obligation to pay." Professor Perry stated.

"The democracy which we defend is a process, a movement in a certain direction: and if we cease to move in that direction we cease to be a democracy. If in our defending we cease to move in that direction, then what we defend is not a democracy."

The problem, as he outlined it, is to reconcile the need for adequate defense with this need for constant progress in the direction of social progress.

Professor Perry ended his remarks with a complaint that the young men and women of the country spend too much of their time merely complaining at what they dislike without suggesting positive plans.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags