4. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY

4. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ~ 161 ~ history, people all over the world have been denied this basic freedom. “Ancient society was essentially intolerant” (p. 743). This meant that the thinking of the common man had; of necessity, to bow to the thinking of the ruling classes. The Encyclopaedia Britannica also devotes eight pages to the intellectual censorship, which was universally prevalent in antiquity. As a case in point, it cites the notorious example of how Chinese citizens were denied freedom of thought by Shin Huang Ti, the Emperor who built the Great Wall of China. In the year 213, he ordered all books to be burnt, saving those dealing with harmless subjects such as medicine and agriculture. Five hundred scholars were executed and thousands were banished. The punishment for failure to burn proscribed books within 30 days was branding and condemnation to forced labour. 79 Other peoples who suffered similar oppression were the Spartans, and the early Romans, Jews and Christians. According to Plutarch, in The Ancient Customs of the Spartans, the Spartans learned to read and write for purely practical reasons, and all other