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Goodbye Jesus

Damn you Russell! Damn you to HELL!


spamandham

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Ok, maybe not.

 

For as long as I can remember, I used "most people would rather die than think" at every proper opportunity.

 

Reading through some Bertrand Russell quotes, I ran across this:

 

"Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so. "

 

Damn you Russell for stealing my catch phrase before I coined it! :grin:

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B.R. is one of my faves.

 

Here's one I know you'll like and that I like.

 

 

One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

 

Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

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B.R. is one of my faves.

 

Here's one I know you'll like and that I like.

One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

 

You were right, I do like it.

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Now these three -- I like. :HaHa:

 

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

 

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence
:scratch:

 

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
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Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

 

I wonder why that is. I get why authority is afraid of thought, but why are individuals afraid to think for themselves? I can't comprehend this. I myself have always embraced it, ran toward it. It consumed me. When I was younger I didn't have the right tools to overcome christianity (I wasn't a genius like DC) but I never once feared thought. Did anyone here?

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I wonder why that is.  I get why authority is afraid of thought, but why are individuals afraid to think for themselves?  I can't comprehend this.  I myself have always embraced it, ran toward it.  It consumed me.  When I was younger I didn't have the right tools to overcome christianity (I wasn't a genius like DC) but I never once feared thought.  Did anyone here?

 

I didn't fear thought - I feared the consequences of thinking. I feared where my thinking might lead me.

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I agree with ol' Russel in this instance; thought is a terrible and terrifying thing, but that does not mean we should automatically submit to that fear simply because it upsets our oh so fondly held certainties. The raw fact of the matter is that thought at a certain point becomes antithetical to the notion of society, which in itself functions on the basis of established limitations; proscribed parameters of behaviour, perception and attitude, none of which are fundamental, all of which are entirely abstract. This does not necessarily that the more intelligent or those more willing to "think" go around raping, murdering and pillaging as and how we desire; it simply means that we have the capacity to ask why there are certain socio-cultural parameters in place, and what they mean on political, personal and public levels. It is only through questioning and periodically deconstructing the "values" or "beliefs" by which we define ourselves that we are able to analyse critically our preconceptions of who and what we are, and thereby adapt, evolve and change. Those who adhere mindlessley to a particular set of ideals (religious fundamentalists, nationalists, political right-wingers) are the ideological equivalents of children dragging their nursery security blanket around the high-school playground; they are cowards, terrified of critical analysis and of the changes it might induce.

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Was Russell talking about a willingness to ask the big questions, or was it more a commentary on the overall intellectual laziness of people?

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