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Is this true? I was under the impression that Bertrand Russell was widely lauded as a man of integrity and clear thinking right across the whole political spect
by GlennS 14y ago
Is this true? I was under the impression that Bertrand Russell was widely lauded as a man of integrity and clear thinking right across the whole political spectrum.
Perhaps this is a USA/UK split, or perhaps just some oddity of my particular friendship group.
- calibraxis 14y agoIt'd be surprising if that's true about the Bertrand Russell who existed after 1950, who did things like organize a tribunal which found the US government guilty of war crimes. Personally, even though I have more books by Russell than by anyone else, I hear almost nothing about his later political views. (Maybe there's something in Logicomix about them, but the only one I know who brings these views up consistently is his fan Chomsky. Who wrote, "From the 1950s, particularly in the United States, he was bitterly denounced and attacked as a crazy old man who was anti-American. [...] That's pretty common. Russell was viciously attacked in the New York Times and by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and others in the 1960s. He wasn't counted as a public intellectual, just a crazy old man.")
- Jimmy 14y agoMost people in the USA outside of academia haven't even heard of Russell, and those that have certainly wouldn't condemn or revile him.