lucylu42-ga,
Hello again.
I have looked through a number of key resources that were available
online through Questia.com [ www.questia.com ]. As I mentioned
earlier, I can provide you some limited excerpts from these books as
they pertain to the Russell quote, along with (I hope you don't mind)
a few observations of my own.
I trust this information will fully meet your needs.
However, before rating this answer, please let me know if you need any
additional information. Just post a Request for Clarification, and
I'll be happy to assist you further.
All the best,
pafalafa-ga
==========
[The quote from Russell originates in his 1917 book, "Why Men Fight",
and you can take from the title alone a bit of Russell's thesis...they
fight because they're not thinking, and -- as the quote makes clear --
they're not thinking because they're afraid to think. Furthermore,
the quote arises in a chapter on Education, and again, almost from the
title of the chapter alone, you can surmise Russell's beliefs -- that
faulty education bears much of the blame for the closing of young
minds, and that true education and teaching students to think is one
of the key offerings of hope for a saner, more peaceful future.
Furthermore, the context of the quote -- especially the paragraph that
follows it -- shows Russell's near-contempt for the what these days
are called the powers-that-be, in their efforts to maintin the status
quo at all costs. What follows are some key excerpts from the
chapter...]
Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel
Bertrand Russell
The Century Co, 1917
V: Education
...some questions...concerning education as a political
institution...are involved in any hope of social reconstruction, and
are not usually considered by writers on educational theory. It is
these questions that I wish to discuss.
...The power of education in forming character and opinion is very
great and very generally recognized. The genuine beliefs, though not
usually the professed precepts, of parents and teachers are almost
unconsciously acquired by most children; and even if they depart from
these beliefs in later life, something of them remains deeply
implanted, ready to emerge in a time of stress or crisis. Education
is, as a rule, the strongest force on the side of what exists and
against fundamental change: threatened institutions, while they are
still powerful, possess themselves of the educational machine, and
instil a respect for their own excellence into the malleable minds of
the young. Reformers retort by trying to oust their opponents from
their position of vantage. The children themselves are not considered
by either party; they are merely so much material, to be recruited
into one army or the other. If the children themselves were
considered, education would not aim at making them belong to this
party or that, but at enabling them to choose intelligently between
the parties; it would aim at making them able to think, not at making
them think what their teachers think. Education as a political weapon
could not exist if we respected the rights of children. If we
respected the rights of children, we should educate them so as to give
them the knowledge and the mental habits required for forming
independent opinions; but education as a political institution
endeavors to form habits and to circumscribe knowledge in such a way
as to make one set of opinions inevitable.
...The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in
grown men and women. Among children it is very common, and grows
naturally out of the period of make-believe and fancy. It is rare in
later life because everything is done to kill it during education. Men
fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth--more than ruin, more
even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive
and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established
institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless,
indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the
ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. It sees
man, a feeble speck, surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence; yet
it bears itself proudly, as unmoved as if it were lord of the
universe. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world,
and the chief glory of man.
...But if thought is to become the possession of many, not the
privilege of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that
holds men back--fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove
delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove
harmful, fear lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect
than they have supposed themselves to be. "Should the working man
think freely about property? Then what will become of us, the rich?
Should young men and young women think freely about sex? Then what
will become of morality? Should soldiers think freely about war? Then
what will become of military discipline? Away with thought! Back into
the shades of prejudice, lest property, morals, and war should be
endangered! Better men should be stupid, slothful, and oppressive than
that their thoughts should be free.
=========
[Seckel, in his comments on some of Russell's writings, put the "Men
fear thought" quote in the broader context of "reason". Russell was a
big believer in the power of reason and the rational mind to arrive at
some sort of truth, and because of that very power, humanity shies
away from reason, sometimes replacing it with unthinking faith...]
Bertrand Russell on God and Religion
Bertrand Russell, Al Seckel
Prometheus Books, 1986
Russell, a great master of English prose, wrote and published over
seventy-five books as well as countless articles, essays, and
pamphlets, many of which have undergone frequent reprintings and have
been the impetus for a vast secondary literature concerning his life
and his views. In addition, Russell had numerous honors conferred upon
him during his lifetime: the Order of Merit ( 1949), the most
exclusive honor given in England; a Nobel Prize for Literature (
1950); the UNESCO Kalinga Prize ( 1957); and the Danish Sonning Prize
for contributions to World Culture ( 1960). This recognition confirms
Russell as a powerful thinker of perennial importance for our time.
Bertrand Russell believed in reason, and he demanded that every
proposed rule of conduct pass the test of reason. The most intense
human suffering, he thought, is due to mankind's failures to adhere to
rational principles. Russell argued logically against such illogical
attitudes as fear of an angry God or feelings of guilt about harmless
sexual pleasures. In fact, he urged that no good reason exists for
believing in God at all or for waging war in an age of nuclear
weapons; but above all, Russell rallied for thought: "Men fear thought
as they fear nothing else on earth--more than ruin, more even than
death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and
terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions,
and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent
to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought
looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid.... Thought is great and
swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
But if thought is to become the possession of many, not the privilege
of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that holds men
back--fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove delusions, fear
lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, fear
lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect than they
have supposed themselves to be."
==========
[The passage on education, below, revisits the Russell quote in the
context of a more recent treatise on freedom and constraints in
education]
Reflective Thinking: The Method of Education
H. Gordon Hullfish, Philip G. Smith
Greenwood Press, 1978
Fear of Thought a Block to Progress
Many teachers, of course, find the routines of habit comforting, and
many lack an adventurous spirit. The latter may be convinced of the
reasonableness of a suggested change (say, from a strict order of
recitation to free participation in discussion) but hesitate to make
it because they will not feel at ease once they lift themselves from
their accustomed grooves. They fear the consequences of giving up
practices which habitual use has given the stamp of certainty. This
fear, we must note, is held because of their concern for those they
teach. In this respect they resemble parents who resist every effort
on the part of schools to help students gain knowledge under objective
conditions about sex differences and the inevitable problems to which
they lead. They are afraid their children "may get ideas," overlooking
the fact that the children already have ideas, most frequently unsound
ones, and, moreover, that they will gain others from sources as varied
as the school cafeteria, lurid writings, street corner gossip,
sensational movies, or gang mores. Spring arrives for the ignorant and
informed alike.
Teachers and parents, under these circumstances, fear thought. Not
being able to calculate its consequences, they withdraw from it. In
consequence, they withdraw the opportunity for young people to learn
to think. Their fear makes them captives of habit. Bertrand Russell
may have overstated the case when he said that "men fear thought as
they fear nothing else on earth?more than ruin, more even than death."
He called attention, nevertheless, to a further reason why it is that
in some classrooms ideas are crushed under the relentless march of
fact. And some teachers of course seem to prize their slavery,
fondling lovingly the chains that bind them.
==========
[Wilson puts a psychological spin on things, offering up the Russell
quote as a critique of herd mentality in human affairs -- that folks
find it much easier to just follow the crowd than to think for
themselves]
A Theory of Public Opinion
Francis Graham Wilson
H. Regnery Co., 1962
When a war is opposed, it is charged that support for war or foreign
policy is manufactured through a conscious exploitation of the
psychological weakness of men in the mass. Those who support such
policies may agree that support is highly emotional rather than
rational, but in such cases emotional behavior is defended because it
is regarded as a support for the rational propositions leadership has
laid down for the guidance of public decision. In either case, the
existence of mass emotional action is correlated with the use of
systematic techniques in relation to public opinion. In 1917 James
Harvey Robinson spoke of "the still small voice of the herd." Quoting
Bertrand Russell, who opposed World War I, he observed that "men fear
thought as they fear nothing else on earth .... " He approved
Trotter's contemporary argument that the only psychology is social
psychology, for beliefs are the products of society and man always
listens to the voice of the herd. Trotter emphasized human
gregariousness and suggestibility as explanations for a large part of
the furniture of the mind. If we think we are harkening to the voice
of God, we may be sure that we are listening to the voice of the herd.
The more confident we are, the less reason there probably is for our
opinion. Robinson himself contended that obedience to the herd is more
dangerous in modern times than it ever has been, for it means the
acceptance of preposterous anachronisms and a refusal to consider the
lessons of experience. Mental instability is unsuited to the modern
scientific era.
==========
[Back to education, again, but this time in the context of overall
human creativity...children learn throughout their student days, and
later on into their adult, working lives, not to rock the boat or to
be too powerful independent]
The Liberal Arts in a Time of Crisis
Barbara Ann Scott, Richard P. Sloan
Praeger Publishers, 1991
Many would-be scientists and artists in our society are tempted by the
great adventures and beauties and opportunities for human service to
be found in free-ranging thought of an innovative sort. Those
possibilities entice the more idealistic students. Early on, however,
they learn the problems traditionally associated with devotedly
engaging in such activities. Teachers advise them that those pursuits
lead to an individuaistic struggle against vested interests, that
daring might cost young academics chances at beginning jobs, or at the
least the security of a continuing contract after a trial period. At
the same time, signs over other gates to careers tempt social science
novices with promises that they can still be intellectually free and
creative even though they have to make careerist compromises. By the
time they have pierced the hypocrisy of those premises, if they ever
do, they will be so shaped by their professional socialization that
they will not want or be able to change course.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his 1841 essay, Self-Reliance: "Society
is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better
security of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty
and culture of the eater. . . . It loves not realities and creators,
but names and customs."( 3 ) or, in words that reflect Bertrand
Russell's own lifelong struggles against the anti-intellectualism of
vested privilege, "Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on
earth...
==========
[Lastly, Williams observes the natural tendency of the child to
intellectually explore the world and learn to think and for
themselves, and how -- as Russell observed -- this capacity is rarely
encouraged by the adults.]
Principles of Social Psychology as Developed in a Study of Economic
and Social Conflict
James Mickel Williams
Knopf, 1922
In the family the child is from his earliest years subjected to the
influence of his elders. Infants are so constantly attended to, and
their attention is so constantly engaged with their elders, that they
have little opportunity for their own devices,--for looking at and
manipulating objects, trying their own vocalization, and bringing
their own little purposes to pass. If given an opportunity to develop
the intellectual instincts of visualization, manipulation,
vocalization, and mental control, they would enjoy a variety of
instinctive action and would be less inclined to fret than if
dependent on the attention of others. Older children, also, are
subjected to the influence of their elders in a way to limit very
narrowly their opportunity for intellectual initiative. This is seldom
encouraged in children. "It will be said that the joy of mental
adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and
that ordinary education can take no account of' it. "The joy of mental
adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women.
Among children it is very common, . . . It is rare in later life
because everything is done to kill it during education. Men fear
thought as they fear nothing else on earth. . . .
==========
Again, let me know if you need any additional information.
pafalafa-ga |
