Date: Sun, 10 Mar 1996 22:35:17 -0500
From: GalileoII@aol.com
Message-ID: <960310222527_347426164@emout08.mail.aol.com>
To: orgonomy@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Reich quote on right of Free Speech
Sender: owner-orgonomy@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU

     I like the suggestion to share some of our favorite passages from
Reich's writings.  Considering all the distracting side bar discussion on who
ought to have the right of free speech, as well as who gets to control the
issues being discussed, it might be instructive to keep the following excerpt
from "The Function of the Orgasm" in mind:


     "I am not a politician and I am not versed in politics, but I am a
socially conscious scientist.  As such, I claim the right to say what I have
recognized to be true.  If my scientific observations have the capacity to be
conducive to a better organization of human conditions, the purpose of my
work shall have been fulfilled....

     "The scientist is duty-bound to insist on the right of free speech under
all conditions; this right must not be left to those whose intent is to
suppress life.  We hear so much about the duty of a soldier to be willing to
sacrifice his life for his country; we hear too little about the duty of a
scientist to expound a truth once it has been recognized, cost what it
may....

     "Those who call themselves democrats and want to contest this right on
the part of the researcher, physician, educator, technician, or writer are
hypocrites, or at least victims of the plague of irrationalism.  Without
firmness and seriousness in vital questions, the fight against the plague of
dictatorship thrives -and can only thrive- in the obscurity of unrecognized
issues of life and death.  Man is helpless when he lacks knowledge;
helplessness due to ignorance is the fertilizer of dictatorship.  A social
system cannot be called democratic if it is afraid of posing decisive
questions, finding unaccustomed answers, and engaging in a discussion about
such questions and answers."


     Wilhelm Reich, The Function of the Orgasm, (Pocket Book edition
published 1975, pages 13-14.)





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