Free Thought and Official Propaganda by Bertrand Russell (PDF)

Description

This book focuses on the importance of unrestricted freedom of expression in society, and the problem of the state and political class interfering in this through control of education, fines, economic leverage, and distortion of evidence and truth.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐With Bertrand Russell we’re going back to the 1920’s in opinions and observations, and as far as my opinions, that is a time travel journey worth taking! His attitudes are direct and down-to-Earth, without the taint of current political “correctness” (that would be a true oxymoron in his view, and I agree!)) trying to fit into the social media maelstrom that occupies the thinking and activities of both present mainstream political parties (not exactly a fun-filled time, as are more traditional parties one may recall on birthdays and such)..Does Russell sound like he has a “conservative” point of view? Of course, and that’s his sensible appeal for me!

⭐His criticism seems fairly extreme in terms of cynicism and the lack of free thought, though I do believe education was probably much more geared towards patriotism. To some degree it feels like conditions have improved since his time, but one could see how our country is actually sliding backward. This can be seen in the very serious efforts by religious groups to warp education towards agreement with Christian teachings. Ironically there are very large and effective propaganda efforts that teach outright scientific falsehoods. Yes, people should be able to view arguments from both sides, but in science education the curriculum should consist of what is the strong scientific consensus of the times. One could say let the children decide which scientific theory is correct from the evidence, but that argument could be made for every scientific topic. Children would be bombarded by scientific views politically or religiously motivated , which are supported by much less credible evidence. This is happening presently, and America now stands apart from the developed world in regard to beliefs on climate change , evolution, and more. This is due to propaganda efforts coordinated by political, religious, and corporate interests

⭐This applies amazingly well in light of modern social justice movements. The modern university system has been overrun by cultural zealots every bit as dangerous and calculating as the early church. And established religions are demanding space in free societies for the most dreadful groups of people that may gather and call themselves a religious group to spread their hate openly, more than openly protected, in fact, by the very people they wish to conquer, convert, subjugate or if that fails put to death. Religion or corruption of the university system seems enough to damage a country, but with people such as Bertrand Russell that have laid the foundation for American free thinkers to spread reason and skepticism we have a chance.

⭐”Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.””… one aim of education should be to cure people of the habit of believing propositions for which there is no evidence—I can only say that it must be done by generating an enlightened public opinion. And an enlightened public opinion can only be generated by the efforts of those who desire that it should exist.”Mr. Russell was, obviously, prescient.

⭐An interesting essay, although rather dated and simplistic, in some ways almost child-like, by “modern” standards. It does, make several nice points, and make for a nice read. It’s principal interest though, is the perspective it offers in two areas: (1) The environment, intellectual view, and concerns, regarding its title subjects ca. (post-WWI, largely pre-Soviet Era) 1922; (2) A century-long panorama of same for today’s readers, say by comparing the pre-1922 synopsis of this book, the later 1960’s, and the 2010’s. Fascinating:Human nature and human follies change but little with time; like the SR-71 Blackbird, the “flight” of each new generation largely self-anneals them …. “Self-annealing Folly” : Only its expression “evolves”.

⭐In this short essay, Welsh philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell wrote about his understanding of free thought, liberty of the press and state (official) propaganda. The text is readable, clear and straightforward. Liberty of thought and speech is a hard feature to achieve and harder to maintain. States and social arrangements have distinct ways to suppress it. Russell points to some of it and gives some tolls to overcome it, in order to achieve better results, provided we all agree in the goodness of free thought.

⭐Terrific nook … In HARD copy! Too bad my kindle devices are such Rube Goldberg nightmare that do more to obstruct and destroy my reading pleasure than to encourage it. It’s enough to make a book lover hate reading. The problem with my Kindle books is the Rube Goldberg nightmare called a Kindle reader guaranteed to kill anyone’s pleasure for reading.

⭐It amazes me that a book written at the turn of the 20th century could have so much modernity in it’s critical thinking. Mr. Russell writes straight unadulterated English which will require no dictionaries or Thesauruses. I found it a good read – the kindle version looks as though it was scanned by a scanner and made into a book. I’m thinking that the book it not published anymore and nobody wants to republish it, but I could be wrong. There were some sections that were hard to read because of the aforementioned problem, but it was still worth the small change they charged- In my opinion- I should be considered a classic and required reading in high school, to say the least.

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