BERTRAND RUSSELL
Sir.-In a recent editorial commenting on the talk given by Bertrand Russell from the BBC on reaching his 80th year and repeated by the NZBS, you failed to mention what I felt to be perhaps his most arresting statement. In summing up the main causes of man’s unhappiness he spoke first of those due to man’s inadequate mastery of nature: second, those caused by men’s hostility to their fellow men. The third chief cause he judged to be "the morbid miseries fostered by gloomy creeds, which have led men into profound inner discords that have made all outward prosperity of no avail." As all psychiatrists know, morbid miseries and profound inner discords often lead to nervous breakdowns, which we are told are so alarmingly on the increase. If this is so can anything be done about it? I think so. I hope so. The churches might well discuss the subject at future conferences. Theirs is the only body qualified to deal with "gloomy creeds." Russell’s closing words are reminiscent of Socrates’s prayer before his death: "I pray the men of the future may live life more nobly than we live it: I pray that all injustice and greed and all littleness of soul may perish from the nature of man."
DORIS M.
MIRAMS
(Timaru).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 721, 8 May 1953, Page 5
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216BERTRAND RUSSELL New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 721, 8 May 1953, Page 5
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