AREOPAGITICA:  On this day in 1644, Areopagitica, John Milton’s famed defense of free expression, was published.  He wrote:

And though all the winds of doctrin[e] were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength.  Let her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the wors[e], in a free and open encounter.

I do wish I had as much confidence in the triumph of truth as Milton had.  To paraphrase Star Trek‘s  Dr. McCoy in The Omega Glory, “Spock, I’ve found that [falsity] usually triumphs–unless [truth] is very, very careful.”  Still, Milton’s admonition that the State should stay the heck out of the fray seems a sound one.