As quoted in Totalitarian Temptation (1976).
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Similarly, societies where news is censored cannot enjoy the luxury of false objectivity because they do not have the true variety. In free civilizations, false objectivity must be fought by true objectivity, not by some alien bureaucracy. Prejudiced history is eliminated, or at least combated, by serious history, and corrupt journalism can only be defeated by honest journalism, not by a government commission whose first act may be to distribute some secret subsidies.

— Jean-François Revel

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Similarly, societies where news is censored cannot enjoy the luxury of false objectivity because they do not have the true variety. In free civilizations, false objectivity must be fought by true objectivity, not by some alien bureaucracy. Prejudiced history is eliminated, or at least combated, by serious history, and corrupt journalism can only be defeated by honest journalism, not by a government commission whose first act may be to distribute some secret subsidies." in the context of "As quoted in Totalitarian Temptation (1976)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Jean-François Revel" (Quotes, 1970s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jean-François Revel

About Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel (19 January 1924 – 30 April 2006) was a French philosopher.