Assignment Instructions
Answer the following discussions with 2-3 paragraph answers for each question.
1. Malala Yousafzai’s speech to the UN posits a direct connection between education and freedom. Do you
agree with the connections she draws? Explain your answer, citing at least one example from the text of
her remarks.
2. John Stuart Mill writes that “…[plopular opinions…are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.
They are a part of the truth; sometimes a greater, sometimes a smaller part, but exaggerated, distorted,
and disjoined from the truths by which they out to be accompanied and limited” (par. 6). What does Mill
mean here? Give an example of when you have seen this in a real-life situation.
3. Mill also writes that silencing someone else’s opinion is ill-advised because “though the silenced opinion
be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth” (par. 7). How do you think this
applies in the way in which we communicate in today’s world, with many of our communications being
through messages or online platforms?
4. Mill poses the idea that one of the worst things we can do is “to stigmatize those who hold the contrary
opinion as bad and immoral men” (par. 8). Examine and discuss this statement in the context of today’s
American political climate.
5. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes a phrase you may have heard before: “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to
that iron string” (par. 2). How does this idea fit into his writings about self-reliance?
6. Emerson also writes that “[society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its
members. Society is a join-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his
bread to each stakeholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater” (par. 5). Discuss the point
Emerson is attempting to make here and whether or not you agree with him.
7. Emerson suggests that to be fully self-reliant, one must to a degree reject property, obligations, and the
rule of government. Is he right? Why or why not?
