Are beliefs private?

I've never read W.K. Clifford's essay "The Ethics of Belief". I'd never heard of it before reading of it on James McGrath's blog, I will have to read it now because this paragraph that McGrath cites is absolutely true and right:

And no one man's belief is in any case a private matter which concerns himself alone. Our lives our guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes. Our words, our phrases, our forms and processes and modes of thought, are common property, fashioned and perfected from age to age; an heirloom which every succeeding generation inherits as a precious deposit and a sacred trust to be handled on to the next one, not unchanged but enlarged and purified, with some clear marks of its proper handiwork. Into this, for good or ill, is woven every belief of every man who has speech of his fellows. An awful privilege, and an awful responsibility, that we should help to create the world in which posterity will live.

By the way, read the comments on McGrath's original blog post (the link is below) and note how nervous this makes his readers. It's odd that we live in an era where it is perfectly acceptable to go over our political enemies' words with a  fine tooth comb looking for that tell-tale line that can be quoted (usually out of context) to make them look like a racist and yet, at the very same time, we get nervous at the thought that our own beliefs might be public property. We are hypocrites on this issue.


(McGrath also gives a link to a PDF of the Clifford essay.)

H/T: Exploring Our Matrix: Clifford on Language as Social Heirloom

PS: Here is a thought experiment.  The next time you are on the bus or walking downtown or sitting in a coffee shop, pick out an attractive person. Study her for a while. Don't be conspicuous about it but just study her and the things she says and does and think of what makes her (or him) attractive and interesting to you. Write them down on a pad. How long can you go with this exercise before her beliefs enter the equation is a significant way?