Talk to UU Church 29 April 2012-Final

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Shortly before the year ended, I wanted to look over RussellsIntroduction to

Mathematical Philosophy. Local bookstores didnt have it, but to my great joy, I saw itlisted in the university library catalog. Oh Boy! I could hardly wait to crack it open. But

when I went to check it out, I was refused: EVERY Russell book in the library was on the

infamousINDEX, which allowed only priests to borrow it. I was incensed, and wrote aletter to the student newspaper complaining bitterly about the practice. The letter was

published, and to put it mildly, my protestations were not received kindly by the Jesuit

establishment.

The week after my letter appeared, every theology class from Freshmen to Senior

included a brief lecture saying it was necessary to restrict such books, because the local

bishop (not a Jesuit) required it. In this way, the Jesuits, many of whom I respected, savedface.

The incident earned me an audience before the University Dean, who made it clear

that I could leave if I didnt like it there. But to his disappointment, I stuck it out morefrom necessity than choice.

I should make it clear that my break with the Catholic Church was a break with its

dogma and oppressive Roman hierarchy which reformed with Pope John XXIII only to

revert to meaner form when he died. I have worked on many occasions with Catholicpeace activists over the years, such as Philip Berrigan, not to mention members of other

religious groups. Russell himself made clear that In the realm of value I admit the

significance of religious experience, and didnt hesitate to work for peace with religious

people of all persuasions. [Answer to Brightman in TPBR (p. 726)]

Russells voluminous popular writings

Now a few words on Russells popular writings. His books on logic, math, andscience can be daunting. His popular books are much easier, but require careful reading

too, and the average person would shrink from plowing through most of them. But Russell

could knock one out at the drop of a hat. Michael Ruse, who wrote the introduction toRussellsReligion and Science, says of his popular writings:

As you might expect, professional philosophers tend to spend less time onRussells popular writings. It is these, however, which won him a huge

following and large audience. Composed at high speedhe could dictate

three thousand words a day, without a single word of correction per page

he would count back and start a 65,000 word book exactly three weeksbefore promised delivery!

Dont we all wish we could write like that!

One of my favorite Russell essays is The Ancestry of Fascism in his popular

bookIn Praise of Idleness. This essay locates the recent philosophical roots for modern

fascism from the 18th Century Enlightenments reliance and focus on reason, to Hume and


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then to Kant. Russell describes how modern societies make the appeal to reason

increasingly ineffective in the art of political persuasion. He says:

As the political constituency grows larger and more heterogeneous, the

appeal to reason [and evidence] becomes more difficult, since there are

fewer universally conceded assumptions from which agreement can start.

That describes to me the sad political situation in our country today. Russell points out that

rejection of reason is nothing newthroughout history, the pendulum has swung betweenvalid argument based on reason and evidence, and specious arguments that usually aim to

satisfy a lust for power and are often shrouded in primitive religious appeals to the masses.

I fervently hope we will swing away from the religiously prejudiced lust for powerwe see in politics today. But this swing can come about only when commonly held

assumptions about human rights, science, and reason again dominate our culture. How I

long for the day when natural evolution and human-produced global warming are in the

mainstream of American thought. Heres an arresting statistic: 38% of Americans believethat God created humans in their present form, and an additional 40% believe God had a

hand in human evolution. Only 16% believe humans evolved naturally. But dont despair:71% of Americans correctly believe Earth goes around the sun. So if you want to ignore

the 29% that believes the sun goes around Earth, things are looking up!

[http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx]Comparable figures for western European countries show a much greater acceptance of

evolution. [http://richarddawkins.net/articles/706] Thats American Exceptionalism for

you!

Not all of Russells popular writings were intellectually challenging. He loved

skewering oppressive religious dogma, and often did so in a humorous fashion (to my mind

at least). Even when serious, he could be funny to make his point. In a philosophicalanalysis of Descartes famous I think, therefore I am, Russell says:

Everybody knows the story of two German pessimistic philosophers, ofwhom one exclaimed: How much happier were it never to have been

born. To which the other replied with a sigh: True! But how few are

those who achieve this happy lot. [Portraits from Memory, essay on Mind

and Matter, p. 147.]

Devoted as he was for human well being, Russell also wrote a self help pop-

psychology book, The Conquest of Happiness. In the blurb for the book, Russell says:

My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day

unhappiness from which most people in civilized countries suffer, andwhich is all the more unbearable because, having no obvious external

cause, it appears inescapable.

Russells popular writings won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. In his
http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspxhttp://richarddawkins.net/articles/706http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspxhttp://richarddawkins.net/articles/706


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address upon receiving the prize, he talked of fear in public life, saying:

The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itselfdegrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is

feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. Nothing has so

beneficent an effect on human beings as security. If an international systemcould be established which would remove the fear of war, the improvement

in everyday mentality of everyday people would be enormous and very

rapid. [Russells Nobel Prize address, 11 December 1950]

Just imagine what we could do to improve daily life if we stopped sinking our national

assets into an imperialistic foreign policy. But today, our political life is infected with fear

fear of Muslims, fear of immigrants, fear of black people wearing hoodies, fear ofchildren who run to their grandmas through a TSA barrier gate. In my opinion, indignation

with a dollop of anger would be much better than fear.

One final pop book, Russells 1929Marriage and Morals, deserves mention.This book analyzed the institution of marriage and made reasoned arguments for sexual

equality between men and women. I consider the book to be most thoughtful and insightful,but Russell was wildly vilified for it. In the United States, the book was used as

evidence in a 1941 civil suit to deny him an academic position at CCNY. The judge

cited the book in the final decision! Shortly after that sorry episode, Russell accepted anacademic position at Harvard, and three years later received the Order of Merit from King

George VI.

Russells social activismRussell was a vigorous opponent of World War I. He understood that entrance of

Britain into the war required citizens to forget their common sense of humanity and

fairness. In his gripping essay Experiences of a Pacifist in the First World War, Russellbegins:

My life has been sharply divided into two periods, one before and one afterthe outbreak of the First World War, which shook me out of many

prejudices and made me think afresh on a number of fundamental

questions

I have at time been paralyzed by skepticism, at times I have been cynical, at

other times indifferent, but when the war came I felt as if I heard the voice

of God. I knew that it was my business to protest, however futile protestmight be. My whole nature was involved. As a lover of truth, the national

propaganda of all the belligerent nations sickened me. As a lover of

civilization, the return to barbarism appalled me.

Russell goes on to describe his pacifist activity, including a narrow and harrowing escape

from a potentially lethal attack by viragos at a pacifist meeting.


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Russells pacifism landed him in prison in 1918 for four and a half months. On his

arrival at the prison, he says:

I was much cheeredby the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars

about me. He asked my religion, and I replied agnostic. He asked how to

spell it, and remarked with a sigh, Well, there are many religions but Isuppose they all worship the same God. This remark kept me cheerful for

about a week.

Russell kept busy in prison, among other things writing the mathematics book censored by

my university.

After World War I, reformers the world over looked to the earth-shaking events inRussia that led to the Bolshevik takeover in 1917. In 1920, Russell went to take a look for

himself, and out of it came his short but powerful bookThe Practice and Theory of

Bolshevism. He was an acute observer of events and warned of dictatorial tendencies in

Russia, remarking critically that Bolshevism is not merely a political doctrine; it is also areligion, with elaborate dogmas and inspired scriptures.

After World War II, until 1959, Russell wrote 15 books on philosophy and social

issues, most notablyHuman Society in Ethics and Politics. As an activist, he focused on

the threat of nuclear war. He worked with Einstein, Schweitzer, and other humanitariannotables around the world to institute the famous Pugwash Conferences on Science and

World Affairs. Pugwash resulted from the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955 and its work

continues to this day. Russell was now a community organizerin the community of

scientists and humanists in the cause of world peace.

In 1961, at 89 years of age, Russell was very active with the Committee For

Nuclear Disarmament opposing the deployment of nuclear-armed US subs in Britain.Later that year, he ended up in jail for the second time. He was sentenced to two months,

but served only for a week because of his health. His crime was disrupting public order in

a large demonstration in London commemorating the destruction of Hiroshima by the USsatomic weapon. His crime was using a microphone in a public park!

The horror of the Vietnam War gave rise to theRussell Tribunals, another legacy

that continues to this day. The Russell Tribunal on Viet Nam, which some of you mightremember, was followed in 1973 by a tribunal on Chiles military coup, and another on the

Iraq War in 2004.

The latest Russell tribunal is on Palestine. As some of you know, justice for

Palestinians has been a special interest of mine for years. The Russell Tribunal on

Palestine is gathering reams of evidence not just on conditions in the occupied territoriesbut also on discrimination against non-Jewish citizens of Israel.

Russell always championed the establishment of world government, understanding

that the difficulties to do it are stupendous, putting its realization a long way off. But he


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hoped, as I do, that steps to that end would be taken in the development of a robust system

of international law, such as we see in the various Geneva Conventions. Unfortunately, the

Conventions are weakly implemented by the UN.

Russell wisely emphasized the importance of population control for effective

international law and the peace it might bring. Unfortunately, population control has beenpractically removed from public discussion in recent years by the rabid religious right wing

in the US.

When the UN was instituted after WWII, we should have expected the most

powerful country in the world, a democratic country that trumpets the importance of UN

resolutions, to steadfastly support impartial implementation of resolutions. The powerful

democratic country Im talking about is, of course, the US of A. To my bitterdisappointment, the US miserably fails the test when it comes to many issues, particularly

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where the US vetoes, at Israels demand, any UN resolution

Israel doesnt want, even if it is voted for by large majorities. Even worse, the US has

turned a blind eye to Israels violations of UN Resolutions the US itself has voted for! Andfor the shame of our country, it has openly supported the Israels theft of West Bank land

used to establish large settlement blocs, thus damaging the same international law ithypocritically expects other countries to follow. When the Russell Tribunal on Palestine is

completed, I hope it receives the news coverage it so richly deserves.

I thank you for your attention and again thank the Worship Committee for this opportunity

to share my views on a man who has taught me much and has inspired me by his actions.

Talk to UU Church 29 April 2012-Final

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Transcript of Talk to UU Church 29 April 2012-Final