Bertrand Russell wrote an excellent essay called "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" [1] where he recounts of past intellectual follies. He wrote the essay to

Bertrand Russell wrote an excellent essay called "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" [1] where he recounts of past intellectual follies. He wrote the essay to "[...] help in seeing our own times in perspective, and as not much worse than other ages that our ancestors lived through without ultimate disaster." As for intellectual follies leading to disasters, it can be argued that our own follies did indeed lead to disasters. [1] http://www.ditext.com/russell/rubbish.html http://www.ditext.com/russell/rubbish.html