Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell

Author:Bertrand Russell
Language: ukr
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Essays, Philosophy, Amazon
ISBN: 9780415473705
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-04-05T18:30:00+00:00

Bring forth men children only,

For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males.

All these ways of speaking come of unwillingness to abandon foolish generalisations.

In the economic sphere there are many wide-spread superstitions.

Why do people value gold and precious stones? Not simply because of their rarity: there are a number of elements called ‘rare earths’ which are much rarer than gold, but no one will give a penny for them except a few men of science. There is a theory, for which there is much to be said, that gold and gems were valued originally on account of their supposed magical properties. The mistakes of governments in modern times seem to show that this belief still exists among the sort of men who are called ‘practical’. At the end of the 1914–18 war, it was agreed that Germany should pay vast sums to England and France, and they in turn should pay vast sums to the United States. Every one wanted to be paid in money rather than goods; the ‘practical’ men failed to notice that there is not that amount of money in the world. They also failed to notice that money is no use unless it is used to buy goods. As they would not use it in this way, it did no good to anyone. There was supposed to be some mystic virtue about gold that made it worth while to dig it up in the Transvaal and put it underground again in bank vaults in America. In the end, of course, the debtor countries had no more money, and since they were not allowed to pay in goods, they went bankrupt. The great depression was the direct result of the surviving belief in the magical properties of gold. This superstition now seems dead, but no doubt others will replace it.

Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth.

One of the most wide-spread popular maxims is, ‘human nature cannot be changed’. No one can say whether this is true or not without first defining ‘human nature’. But as used it is certainly false. When Mr A utters the maxim, with an air of portentous and conclusive wisdom, what he means is that all men everywhere will always continue to behave as they do in his own home town. A little anthropology will dispel this belief. Among the Tibetans, one wife has many husbands, because men are too poor to support a whole wife; yet family life, according to travellers, is no more unhappy than elsewhere. The practice of lending one's wife to a guest is very common among uncivilised tribes. The Australian aborigines, at puberty, undergo a very painful operation which, throughout the rest of their lives, greatly diminishes sexual potency. Infanticide, which might seem contrary to human nature, was almost universal before the rise of Christianity, and is recommended by Plato to prevent over-population. Private property is not recognised among some savage tribes. Even among highly civilised people, economic considerations will override what is called ‘human nature’.

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