{"id":4676,"date":"2016-07-11T18:36:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T18:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/repeatright.com\/engine\/?p=4676"},"modified":"2018-10-09T05:15:23","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T05:15:23","slug":"benedict-ruth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/engine\/benedict-ruth\/","title":{"rendered":"BENEDICT, Ruth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cCivil liberties in all human societies have always paid their way; they have given advantages to all citizens and all tribesmen. Special privileges, arbitrary power, on the other hand, are boomerangs which return to strike those who wield them, and they bring conflict and often terror into the whole society.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Ruth Benedict<\/strong>, American author & anthropologist<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimitive Freedom\u201d (June 1942) The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>, Vol. 169, No. 6, Boston, MA: Atlantic Monthly, p. 756, column 2<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531588755-96303790-852e094f-cf635381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>[Essay]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is solid reason, therefore, in the history of human societies, for the opposition of the democracies to the spread of the Nazi state and of Nazi ideology. But this solid reason is grounded on the social utility of civil liberties, the liberties which can be made common property. Civil liberties in all human societies have always paid their way; they have given advantages to all citizens and all tribesmen. Special privileges, arbitrary power, on the other hand, are boomerangs which return to strike those who wield them, and they bring conflict and often terror into the whole society.<\/span> Therefore, we in America are willing to pay enormous prices lest liberty be lost on our continent. The only argument is how best to keep ourselves strong and uncontaminated. For this great end we must be clear in our minds that the way to keep ourselves from the taint of our enemies is through the defense of civil liberties. We must be sure that we do not curtail them in the fields already allowed, and we must extend them to other fields not now recognized. For Liberty is the one thing no man can have unless he grants it to others.\u201d<\/span> (p. 756)<\/p>\n

Source note<\/em><\/strong>: Benedict\u2019s essay was later included in An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict<\/em> (1959), a collection of Benedict\u2019s work edited by her close friend Margaret Mead. (\u201cPrimitive Freedom\u201d begins on p. 396, the cited text can be found at the bottom of p. 398 \u2013 First edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1449531589797-29580b31-8c50094f-cf635381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>, Vol. 169 (1942) International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 0276-9077<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315829087-ce67c619-0fbc5381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cL<\/strong>iberty is the one thing no man can have unless he grants it to others.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Ruth Benedict<\/strong>, American author & anthropologist<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimitive Freedom\u201d (June 1942) The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>, Vol. 169, No. 6, Boston, MA: Atlantic Monthly, p. 756, column 2<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315829475-7c82a017-1e625381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>[Essay]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is solid reason, therefore, in the history of human societies, for the opposition of the democracies to the spread of the Nazi state and of Nazi ideology. But this solid reason is grounded on the social utility of civil liberties, the liberties which can be made common property. Civil liberties in all human societies have always paid their way; they have given advantages to all citizens and all tribesmen. Special privileges, arbitrary power, on the other hand, are boomerangs which return to strike those who wield them, and they bring conflict and often terror into the whole society. Therefore, we in America are willing to pay enormous prices lest liberty be lost on our continent. The only argument is how best to keep ourselves strong and uncontaminated. For this great end we must be clear in our minds that the way to keep ourselves from the taint of our enemies is through the defense of civil liberties. We must be sure that we do not curtail them in the fields already allowed, and we must extend them to other fields not now recognized. For Liberty is the one thing no man can have unless he grants it to others<\/span>.\u201d (p. 756)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISSN” tab_id=”1453315829682-63e8fade-cf4c5381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: Library – The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>, Vol. 169 (1942) International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 0276-9077<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e5381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cThe happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good, and against some greatly scorned evil.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Ruth Benedict<\/strong>, American author & anthropologist<\/p>\n

Journal entry (undated \u2013 c.1915-1934) An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict,<\/em> ed. Margaret Mead, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1959, p. 144<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf5381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Journal entry]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good, and against some greatly scorned evi<\/span>l\u2026The exhilarating sense of conflict and of rest from conflict which together make up the meaning of life, no longer universally possible on the plane of instinct, have largely come to exist in the more contagious, more gregarious, more interdependent world of the intelligence.\u201d (p.144)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ID” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e05381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library – An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict<\/em> (1959) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 867270999<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf635381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cThe trouble with life isn\u2019t that there is no answer, it\u2019s that there are so many answers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Ruth Benedict<\/strong>, American author & anthropologist<\/p>\n

Journal entry (7 January 1913) cited in An Anthropologist at Work<\/em>, ed. Margaret Mead, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1959, p. 126<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf635381-89e58f42-8762″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Journal entry]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble with life isn\u2019t that there is no answer, it\u2019s that there are so many answers<\/span>. There\u2019s the answer of Christ and of Buddha, of Thomas \u00e0 Kempis and of Elbert Hubbard, of Browing, Keats and of Spinoz, of Thoreau and of Walt Whitman, of Kant and of Theodore Roosevelt. By turns their answers fit my needs. And yet, because I am I and not any one of them, they can none of them be completely mine.\u201d (p. 126)<\/p>\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0Library – An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict<\/em> (1959) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 867270999<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Resources<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”Wrapper-Author-Resources”]Learn more about Ruth Benedict <\/strong><\/span>| Here are a few good places to start –<\/p>\n