John Stuart Mill, the British philosopher, wrote about the importance of “experiments in living.” He based his defense of freedom not on an abstract value, but upon the recognition that civil society also needs trial and error. Social conformity, he argued, is catastrophic because it limits experimentation (it is the sociological equivalent of deference to authority). Criticism and dissent, far from being dangerous to the social order, are central to it. They drive new ideas and fire creativity.*
