Democracy, Loyalty, Disobedience: a Query

Abstract

of conformity, as it has variously been called - an age in which the state has become for many a surrogate religion and bids fair to make Hobbes's Leviathan, mortal God, a benevolent fantasy - the claims of the state must indeed undergo searching scrutiny. As Harold J. Laski once warned, We do not want to make our State a cattle-yard in which only the shepherd shall know one beast from another. 1 It is very important, therefore, that we be reminded that the perennial philosophic problems of political obedience and of the claims of conscience have been posed anew by legislative investigations and loyalty-security programs, and that the deep and vital Western tradition of freedom and conditional allegiance is profoundly significant for our time. Stimulating and valuable though some recent discussions of these problems have been, some of the proffered solutions seem quite misleading. The following reflections sketch broadly some important considerations which cannot well be omitted in seeking solutions for these crucial problems. I It has been argued that the plight of witnesses before legislative investigating committees who choose to remain silent by invoking the Fifth Amendment is made even more difficult because the law affords them