Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) is one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. In addition to his books on mathematical logic and philosophy, many are those of policy and ethics. The world wars of the twentieth century mark the test of her pacifism: Russell was the first non-interventionist war but not the second. It seemed in fact that pacifism, even in its radical Gandhi, could not succeed against the Nazis, because "the power [of nonviolence] depends on the presence of certain virtues in those against which is used. "
However, after World War II was one of the greatest entertainers of initiatives for peace and nuclear disarmament.
The great British philosopher Bertrand Russell pacifist suddenly discovered in 1901 at the age of 29 years. He had a sudden crisis that could be called "mysticism", during an episode of acute suffering wife of the philosopher Whitehead: "Within five minutes I passed through the mind thoughts such as: the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the most intense form of that kind of love preached by the great mystics, all that does not arise from this impulse is harmful or at least unnecessary, it follows that war is a mistake, that the education you receive in the major college English is abominable, that the use of force is regrettable [...]. At the end of those five minutes I had become a completely different person. For a while I was dominated by a sort of mystical illumination "[ Bertrand Russell's autobiography, I, pp. 239-240].
Nonviolence was not so ingrained, it is instead the case of other peace activists (one for all: Simone Weil), nor was part of the his education, as Russell was an aristocrat of liberal ideas but also nourished by love of country.
Besides his position on pacifism will change with changing historical conditions, highlighting an ethical pragmatism irreconcilable with the religious or radical pacifism with Gandhian nonviolence.
During the First World War, Russell was committed to fund the cause of peace, fighting for the non-intervention: "It seemed impossible that the European nations commit the madness to start a war, but I had no doubt that if the War broke out he really was, England would have been dragged to participate. I felt however, with all your soul, that our country should remain neutral and thus caused many professors and members of the various colleges to make a declaration of principle which was published in the Manchester Guardian . The day of our entry into the war almost all changed their minds "[ there , II, p. 11].
Membership of Russell's pacifism is not mediated by philosophical considerations, is rather a spontaneous attitude, emotional. Neither pacifism tactical or strategic, short, or pacifism "of conviction."
Russell would later admit that adherence to pacifism not was immune from his natural skepticism: "I imagined now be liberal, socialist hours, Pacific time, but in the deepest sense I have never been neither one thing nor the other nor the other. Ever the skeptical mind, when I wanted more silent, he murmured his doubts, he cut off the easy enthusiasm of others and transported me into a desolate loneliness "[ there , p. 51].
While working with associations democratic pacifist, he realizes that the consent to the war is broader and more spontaneous than they could imagine: "I, like almost all anti-war, I always naively thought that wars were imposed by despotic and Machiavellian governments reluctant to populations. [...] The first days of war were the most shocking for me. My closest friends, such as, for example, Whitehead, proved interventionists believe [there , pp. 12-13].
The war reserve love surprises and provides a starting point for considerations shiny and disconsolate about human nature: "Until then I had thought that people in general, he loved money more than anything else, I realized that they loved even more destruction. I imagined that intellectuals especially loved the truth, but here again I found that those who preferred the truth were known to less than ten percent [ there , p. 15].
Col pressure of events the specific commitment of Russell is becoming more determined and courageous.
With the introduction of conscription has been fighting full-time for the defense of conscientious objectors, who face the death penalty.
holds public lectures: "I spent three weeks in the mining districts of Wales [...] None of the meetings was always stopped and found that the majority, the public was not hostile, not at all: as long as I just speaking areas industry. In London, things went differently [ there , p. 28].
In 1916 he was taken off the job at Trinity College, Cambridge for his unpopular pacifist commitment to the academic authorities and colleagues.
also undergoes an absurd decision of the authorities: he was prohibited from visiting the industrial and coastal areas of the country, fearing that could make recommendations to the enemy submarines!
Finally, in May 1918, was imprisoned for six months to get released on a small pacifist magazine news of military already relatively public.
Actually Russell is gradually convinced of the ineffectiveness, given the state of any practical action to sign peace, "On the other hand, it was useful or not the action had begun, I was not able to stop just when it seemed he could forced to abandon the work for fear of the consequences.
The fact remains that just as I drove in prison, I was convinced that everything we were trying to do was useless, "[there , p. 44].
The outbreak of World War II saw a Russell convinced of the need to actively resist, with arms, Nazi barbarity: "I was able imagine with acquiescence, albeit reluctant, the possibility of a rule of the Kaiser's Germany, believing that, though he could be a calamity, would not be a bad thing as bad as a world war with all its consequences. Ben else was Hitler's Germany. I felt an indescribable loathing for the Nazis: cruel, fanatic and stupid. I was hateful, no less morally and intellectually. Although I still cling to my pacifist convictions, I did more and more difficult, and when, in 1940, weighed the threat of an invasion on England, I realized that throughout the first war I had never seriously contemplated the possibility of a total defeat . This idea I was unbearable and finally, in all conscience, I decided it was my duty to support all that seemed necessary to achieve victory, as there are rarely as they were painful and the likely consequences of World War II "[ therein, pp. 338-339].
pacifism A "spontaneous" can easily fail in the face of an opponent 'exceptional' as fascism, an example of violence without redemption.
Severus and then becomes almost a caricature of the proceedings on the Gandhian nonviolence Russell: "I believe however that the method of resistance passive or, saying better, the resistance without violence, could have a broader scope than it turned out the light of the facts.
certainly has great power in India, against the British, Gandhi brought a triumph. But the strength of it depends on the presence of certain virtues in those against whom it is used. When the Indians they lay on the railroad tracks challenging the authorities to crush them under trains, the British left off from committing a similar cruelty. The Nazis but had no scruples in analogous situations. The doctrine preached by Tolstoy so persuasive, namely that those in power can be reclaimed if you are morally opposed a passive resistance, was obviously of no value in Germany after 1933 "[ there , II, p. 340].
obscured only by a sincere desire not to seem self-contradictory, Russell says finally: "I never had absolute faith in the idea of \u200b\u200bpassive resistance, and will not ever totally rinnegai. But in practice the difference between the opposition to World War I and the consensus was the second big enough not to let see the considerable degree of theoretical coherence that actually existed between [my] two attitudes [ there , II p . 341].
Di Faced with these statements, the nature of pacifism skeptic Bertrand Russell appears quite clearly and the limitations of a policy may not sufficiently theorized in terms of ethical and philosophical.
However, after the Second World War, Russell continued to strive admirably to the cause of peace and justice by establishing the so-called Russell Tribunal, composed of independent persons with the task of denouncing the crimes of war silenced by the media .
In the last years of his life, individually and through Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation , Russell has "devoted more time and thoughts to Vietnam War [ there , III, p. 289].
It is also very much committed to avoid the risk of nuclear war, writing appeals to heads of state of the superpowers: in 1955, among other things, was the initiator of the so-called Russell-Einstein Manifesto against the use of nuclear weapons.
Texts cited:
B. Russell, Bertrand Russell's autobiography , Longanesi, Milano 1969.
(Taken from Without Violence. Ideas and stories of the movement Peace, edited by Edward Acotto, "Days of History" No 38, The Unit, 2004)
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