In September 1918 philosopher and future Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell was hauled off to prison for six months. His crime was speaking out against World War I.
Living through September 11 and the nationalism that swept over our country immediately afterward, pushing us into an unnecessary and disconnected war in Iraq, I remember how anti-war sentiments were denounced as unpatriotic.
I was uncomfortable speaking out and usually kept my views — undeveloped as they were — quiet. I can only imagine how much harder it would be, and how much more courage it would take, to be living in Europe during the outbreak of the first World War and to publically speak out against it.
Before being imprisoned, Russell was despised by countless people and even lost his job. Yet he continued to speak out against war for his entire 98 years of life, living long enough to criticize the debacle in Vietnam.
His controversial anti-war lectures that cost him so much were compiled in a book called Why Men Fight. I tried getting it at the library but had no luck. So I picked up a copy on Abebooks. Yesterday it arrived. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself holding a hardcover first edition copy (1917) in very good condition.
Russell was not simply an anti-war activist, but a true scholar on all matters ranging from advocating free trade, free thinking, anti-imperialism, anti-statism, the rights of women, logic, nuclear disarmament and philosophy. Here’s a great video clip that illustrates his famous notion of the Celestial Teapot:
I encourage you to print up two of his classic lectures to read at your convenience: Why I am Not a Christian and his 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech (video clip here). Both are beautifully written, highly thought-provoking and well worth your time.
The introduction to his classic book The Problems of Philosophy says, “Russell is an important and fascinating figure, no doubt the most read, most honored, and most reviled English-speaking philosopher of the twentieth century.”
I leave you with a collection of my favorite Bertrand Russell quotes:
Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
War does not determine who is right only who is left.
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
Liberty Is For Me 