The Best Answer to Fanaticism
I adore Bertrand Russell. I adore him so much that I have learned from him not to passively accept the opinion of any authority—not even his.
I hope Meta’s Fact-Checking has nothing against Russell and won’t block this promotional post as well. I don’t know what’s so objectionable about philosophy, but it seems Facebook doesn’t like it very much.
I wrote Zombies of Marx—available in all Amazon stores: https://amzn.eu/d/4UwLzyC — with an article published in The New York Times in 1951 in mind: The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism.
I believe it is highly relevant today because it reminds us of what we have forgotten. The anxiety of some in defending freedom has turned into increasingly unpleasant forms of control, and honest discussion about the present is overshadowed by narcissism.
In 1951, Russell wrote:
"I would ask timorous people to remember that safety is impossible to achieve and is ignoble as an aim. Risk must be run, and those who refuse to run risks incur a certainty of much greater disaster sooner or later. It is all very fine to wish to curb human passions, but you cannot curb the passions of those who do the curbing. In imagination, of course, you see yourself as a person of exemplary virtue. This, dear reader, I shall not dispute. But you are not immortal. Others will succeed you in the censor's office, and they may be less humane and less enlightened than you."
Freedom requires risk and responsibility. This is inevitable. It cannot depend on a single individual but must be an inevitably collective commitment.
Anyone who believes they are the sole guarantee of freedom must remember that they are not eternal. We have forgotten that we are not eternal, and we should remember it.
Read Zombies of Marx, also available as an eBook with Kindle Unlimited:
https://a.co/d/dVUFPfs
I hope Meta’s Fact-Checking has nothing against Russell and won’t block this promotional post as well. I don’t know what’s so objectionable about philosophy, but it seems Facebook doesn’t like it very much.
I wrote Zombies of Marx—available in all Amazon stores: https://amzn.eu/d/4UwLzyC — with an article published in The New York Times in 1951 in mind: The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism.
I believe it is highly relevant today because it reminds us of what we have forgotten. The anxiety of some in defending freedom has turned into increasingly unpleasant forms of control, and honest discussion about the present is overshadowed by narcissism.
In 1951, Russell wrote:
"I would ask timorous people to remember that safety is impossible to achieve and is ignoble as an aim. Risk must be run, and those who refuse to run risks incur a certainty of much greater disaster sooner or later. It is all very fine to wish to curb human passions, but you cannot curb the passions of those who do the curbing. In imagination, of course, you see yourself as a person of exemplary virtue. This, dear reader, I shall not dispute. But you are not immortal. Others will succeed you in the censor's office, and they may be less humane and less enlightened than you."
Freedom requires risk and responsibility. This is inevitable. It cannot depend on a single individual but must be an inevitably collective commitment.
Anyone who believes they are the sole guarantee of freedom must remember that they are not eternal. We have forgotten that we are not eternal, and we should remember it.
Read Zombies of Marx, also available as an eBook with Kindle Unlimited:
https://a.co/d/dVUFPfs
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