War & Peace Quote by Timothy Garton Ash

Garton Ash frames the internet age as a moral stress test: a world "blessed and cursed" with instant communication, where the speed and reach of speech outpace our norms for handling it. The phrasing "That said, the question remains" signals the voice of a public intellectual mid-argument, trying to steer a polarized debate back toward first principles. He isn’t performing neutrality so much as insisting that the hard part starts after the slogans. Everyone claims to be for free speech; the real contest is over what social costs we accept to keep it.

The key move is pairing "free speech" with "mutual respect" without letting either swallow the other. In contemporary discourse, calls for respect can become a velvet-gloved demand for silence, while invocations of free speech can serve as a permission slip for cruelty. Ash’s subtext is that liberal societies can’t outsource this tension to platforms, laws, or outrage cycles; balance is an ongoing civic practice, not a final policy setting.

"We should not fight fire with fire, threats with threats" reads like an antidote to the escalation logic of online life, where provocation is rewarded and retaliation feels like accountability. He’s warning that the methods used to defend open debate can end up mimicking the coercion they oppose: deplatforming as reflex, doxxing as justice, intimidation as righteousness. The intent is less to scold than to preserve a fragile achievement: a public sphere where disagreement doesn’t automatically metastasize into fear.