Bertrand Russell: As inhuman as they come

by Joel Harris

Bertrand Russell loved pontificating on his personally skewed views regarding popular mass psychology and especially how such views intersected with what he would refer to as the "governing classes"  (he was heavily influenced in his thinking by the likes of Freud and Pavlov, both quacks in their own right and it constantly comes through in his writing); in these various notably published works, some books, some peroidical entries, he would go on to mark himself as one of the most horribly imperialist and downright horrifying "anti-humanist" thinkers of not only his own time but of all time, period; he was never apologetic in this, either.

Take the most horrific of Hitlers eugenic ideologies, the most diabolical of Goebbels manipulations on the unsuspecting minds of the public and combine them with a general mood of social and professional acceptance among the vast majority of today's so called "intellectual elite" and you will know, in a very simple but accurate sense, who and what Bertrand Russell was and what he still so actutely represents. Oh yeah ... just consider the fundamental and core belief structure of the long standing British monarchical system and there too, you will find a very simple understanding of what drove the mind behind the following quotes, these being taken directly from two of Bertrand Russell's published works.

Consider the implications of his words below; and then take a long hard look at how today's media outlets are so carefully structured in regards to the availability, continuity and specifically the nature of the messages that we are all bombarded with on a 24 hour basis (radio stations, cable networks, news networks, local television, newspapers, popular magazines, billboards, music, the backs of taxi cabs, etc.); think about the persistently published content that this propaganda machine is endlessly concerned with (issues of racial hatred and racial fear, issues of religious conflict and religious fears, the general and constant buttressing of the manifold "enemy images" we see being developed at all times: be headings!, burned alive!, shootings! Russia did it! North Korea did it! China is certainly behind it! If not China then maybe your neighbor!) then consider how these messages, like an intellectually cancerous seed corn, have become rooted in the minds of just about all popular social structures, from schools to office buildings; from the general labor demographic to churches and synagogues and mosques; even the typical family dinner table has become a means of magnifying, protracting and propagating these messages.

It is a hideously well oiled machine that generates this smoke and that manufactures these mirrors; today, we call it popular or "mass" media.

Upon studying up on Bertrand Russell, it becomes chillingly clear what the psychological and social stance of the current day "ruling class" is and what this so called, "class" is most interested in regarding the general population; it's so neatly lined out here in the following two quotes, one from a 1930's publication and one from a much later book Russel authored in the 1950's; both bits acutely demonstrate Russell's obviously Nietzschean and even more so, Aristotelian ideas in regards to mass social and psychological dynamics (as opposed to a more humanist vein of thinking, possibly best illustrated by the Platonic tradition in philosophical thought).

Read these carefully and then again, consider what we see (especially among the youth) all around us today in day to day happenings...

This first bit is from a 1951 book by Bertrand Russell, calledThe Impact of Science on Society... 

Russell writes...

"Physiology and psychology afford fields for scientific technique which still await development. Two great men, Pavlov and Freud, have laid the foundation. I do not accept the view that they are in any essential conflict, but what structure will be built on their foundations is still in doubt. I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology.... Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called 'education.' Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part.... It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.

"The subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship.... The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray. ...

"Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen."

And this last, even more horrific bit is taken from Bertrand Russel's book called The Scientific Outlook;  in a chapter called "Education in a Scientific Society," he writes:

"[t]he scientific rulers will provide one kind of education for ordinary men and women, and another for those who are to become holders of scientific power. Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented. Of these qualities probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviorism, and biochemistry will be brought into play.... All the boys and girls will learn from an early age to be what is called 'co-operative,' i.e., to do exactly what everybody is doing. Initiative will be discouraged in these children, and insubordination, without being punished, will be scientifically trained out of them.

"Except for the one matter of loyalty to the world State and to their own order, members of the governing class will be encouraged to be adventurous and full of initiative. It will be recognized that it is their business to improve scientific technique, and to keep the manual workers contented by means of continual new amusements....

"On those rare occasions, when a boy or girl who has passed the age at which it is usual to determine social status shows such marked ability as to seem the intellectual equal of the rulers, a difficult situation will arise, requiring serious consideration. If the youth is content to abandon his previous associates and to throw in his lot whole-heartedly with the rulers, he may, after suitable tests, be promoted, but if he shows any regrettable solidarity with his previous associates, the rulers will reluctantly conclude that there is nothing to be done with him except to send him to the lethal chamber before his ill-disciplined intelligence has had time to spread revolt. This will be a painful duty to the rulers, but I think they will not shrink from performing it."

"Rulers" ... "ordinary men and women" ... "holders of scientific power" ... "governing class" ... "scientific dictatorship" ...

Over and over the same terms, the same obvious disdain for any sort of crazy notion like "the greater good," ... or that "all men are created equal" ... or that all citizens of our once great Republic are endowed by the Creator with "unalienable rights" ...

And perhaps the best closing comment I can come up with is pulled directly from the very same document a few of those last few quotes were taken from ... our very own Declaration of Independence; and I think it's perfect counterpoint to the near inhuman tone of Bertrand Russell's gross musings, almost an antidote of sorts really...

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government" ...

[end]

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this post is intended to be supplemental to the facts made public in my main website, http://www.jbhfile.com/; it probably will not make much sense to you if you have not already made yourself aware of the legal and personal efforts discussed in that site. please see http://www.jbhfile.com/ for a necessary introduction into why this blog exists. or, if you just like reading weird stuff, then don't. and, enjoy.

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jbh.