A stout old lady was walking with her basket down the middle of a
street in Petrograd to the great confusion of the traffic and with no
small peril to herself. It was pointed out to her that the
pavement was the place for pedestrians, but she replied: ‘I’m going
5 to walk where I like. We’ve got liberty now.’ It did not occur
to the dear old lady that if liberty entitled the pedestrian to
walk down the middle of the road, then the end of such liberty
would be universal chaos. Everybody would be getting in
everybody else’s way and nobody would get anywhere.
10 Individual liberty would have become social anarchy. There is a danger of the world getting liberty-drunk in
these days like the old lady with the basket, and it is just as well
to remind ourselves of what the rule of the road means. It means
that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the
15 liberties of everybody must be curtailed. When the policeman,
say, at Piccadilly Circus steps into the middle of the road and
puts out his hand, he is the symbol not of tyranny, but of liberty.
You may not think so. You may, being in a hurry, and seeing
your car pulled up by this insolence of office, feel that your
20 liberty has been outraged. How dare this fellow interfere with
your free use of the public highway? Then, if you are a
reasonable person, you will reflect that if he did not interfere with
you, he would interfere with no one, and the result would be that
Piccadilly Circus would be a maelstrom that you would never
25 cross at all. You have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty
in order that you may enjoy a social order which makes your
liberty a reality.
Liberty is not a personal affair only, but a social
contract. It is an accommodation of interests. In matters which do
30 not touch anybody else’s liberty, of course, I may be as free as I
like. If I choose to go down the road in a dressing-gown who
shall say me nay? You have liberty to laugh at me, but I have
liberty to be indifferent to you. And if I have a fancy for dyeing
my hair, or waxing my moustache (which heaven forbid), or
35 wearing an overcoat and sandals, or going to bed late or getting
up early, I shall follow my fancy and ask no man’s permission. I
shall not inquire of you whether I may eat mustard with my
mutton. And you will not ask me whether you may follow this
religion or that, whether you may prefer Ella Wheeler Wilcox to
40 Wordsworth, or champagne to shandy.
In all these and a thousand other details you and I please
ourselves and ask no one’s leave. We have a whole kingdom in
which we rule alone, can do what we choose, be wise or
ridiculous, harsh or easy, conventional or odd. But directly we
45 step out of that kingdom, our personal liberty of action becomes
qualified by other people’s liberty. I might like to practice on the
trombone from midnight till three in the morning. If I went on to
the top of Everest to do it, I could please myself, but if I do it in
my bedroom my family will object, and if I do it out in the streets
50 the neighbors will remind me that my liberty to blow the
trombone must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet.
There are a lot of people in the world, and I have to
accommodate my liberty to their liberties.
We are all liable to forget this, and unfortunately we are much
55 more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than
of our own. A reasonable consideration for the rights or feelings
of others is the foundation of social conduct.
It is in the small matters of conduct, in the observance of
the rule of the road, that we pass judgment upon ourselves, and
60 declare that we are civilized or uncivilized. The great moments of
heroism and sacrifice are rare. It is the little habits of
commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life and
sweeten or make bitter the journey.
Questions for Day 2:
1. The sentence ‘It means….curtailed’ (lines 13-15) is an example of
A. hyperbole
B. cliché
C. simile
D. paradox
E. consonance
2. Which sentence best sums up the author’s main point?
A. There is a danger….lines 11-13
B. A reasonable…. lines 56-57
C. It is in the small matters….lines 58-60
D. The great moments….lines 60-61
E. It is the little….lines 61-63
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The statement asserts that in a free society, the individual often has to give up his/her personal freedom in order for a greater good to be accomplished. For example, I am perfectly free to push someone out of my way. However, this would be asserting my freedom at the cost of the other person’s freedom. The rules dictate that I am not free to do that because the value of respect for fellow human beings trumps my freedom to push the person out of the way. The famous example of free speech works here too. Freedom of speech does not give one the right to yell “fire!” in a crowded theater. Is the author’s claim a hyperbole? A hyperbole is an exaggeration that is made in order to make a point. That won’t work. Cliche? While the author’s observation is a well-known one, it couldn’t really be called a cliche. Is it a simile? Do you see the word “like” or “as” anywhere? No. And what is consonance?? Dictionary.com defines it as ”the correspondence of consonants, esp. those at the end of a word, in a passage of prose or verse.” I’m not seeing that. Then there’s paradox. A paradox is an apparent contradiction. It sounds contradictory, but, upon closer scrutiny, it’s not. “The more things change, the more they stay the same” is a well-known paradoxical statement. Here, the author is claiming that we have to give up freedom in order to maintain freedom. This sounds like a contradiction, but when we read through his explanation, we see that his point makes perfect sense. The answer is (D).
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First let’s ask ourselves what the main point is. Is it the line we just referred to? That’s tempting, since it is a major point of discussion throughout the article. However, this line is really more of an introduction to the deeper point. Yes, we do have to give up personal freedoms on occasion. However, his main point, is a development from that idea; what he really wants to say is that there are all kinds of little things that we have to do on a regular basis, day in and day out, in order to maintain a truly free society. So (A) won’t work. (B) is also very tempting, but it basically makes the same point as choice (A), just in a different way. We sometimes have to give up our own freedoms in consideration of others. (D) is really an aside. The emphasis is on everyday behavior; he simply makes the point here that most of us will never have the opportunity to do something earth-shakingly heroic, but we have opportunities each and every day to do the right thing. (E) is a concluding statement and is very general. (C) is the best response because it states in detail what one must do in order to contribute to living in a free society.
