Free Thought and Official Propaganda

by Bertrand Russell

"Free Thought and Official Propaganda" by Bertrand Russell is a speech delivered in 1922. Russell examines how governments suppress freedom of expression through education, propaganda, and economic control. He argues against blind certainty and advocates for rational doubt, contrasting William James's "will to believe" with his own "will to doubt." Drawing from personal experiences of censorship and discrimination, Russell demonstrates how political establishments punish dissenting voices, whether religious, political, or scientific, and warns that intellectual freedom exists nowhere without restriction.