The success of modern socialism, or Oligarchical Collectivism as George Orwell called it in “1984”, depends on the imposition of an ideology on society and that in turn depends on the use of propaganda in education and mass media to shape peoples’ minds. The idea is visible in Marx’s writing when he confers a collective identity, ‘the proleteriat’ or more colloquially ‘the proles’ on the working classes.
The idea that working class people are stupid and easily manipulated, while totally wrong, is attractive to elitist intellectuals who will have rarely met working class people in situations where both could feel at ease. This is demonstrated by the British socialist philosopher and mathematician in his essay ‘The Impact Of Science On Society’. Russell, or The Earl Of Russell to give this seld appointed spokesman for the working classes his formal title. A member of the elite socialist group The Fabian Society, Russell believed the path to a socialist utopia lay through the wilderness of tyranny. Like many of his socialist and communist fellow travellers as well as authoritarians such as Mussolini who are more frequently described as ‘the right’, Russell believe democracy was an obstacle to scientific and social progress and that a better society could only be achieved by the creation of a global, totalitarian, technocratic government.
Though published after world War Two his book “The Impact Of Science On Society contained ideas Russell and his Fabian socialist colleagues had been promoting since the late nineteenth century. As is typical of Russell, the writing style is excruciatingly dull (a trait shared by many socialist non fiction authors – they take themselves far too seriously). The beginning of the book seems reasonable and humanitarian, and is intended to soften the reader up for the disgusting conclusions which are presented as desirable or inevitable, conclusions which were adopted by Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse Tung and other authoritarian socialists.
You may also notice in the second paragraph, Russell employs a phrase I and other critics of global government thinking have been ridiculed for using, ‘scientific dictatorship’. We new media writers and ‘conspiracy theorists’ did not invent such phrases, they were coined by people who worship science and constantly campaign for a ‘new world order’ under a global totalitarian government.
Read through the following quotes from the book (they’re not that long, though they might seem to be) and decide for yourself how much of the conspiracy is already in place, and how desirable any form of socialist government is to people who value their freedom. (The Impact Of Science On Society is available as a free download – Kindle, Epub, .pdf formats)
Here are some relevant excerpts it in Russell’s own words:
from The Impact Of Science On Society by Bertrand Russell (published 1952)
Note: I have taken page numbers from a copy of the Routeledge edition bought by my Dad in the late 1950s. The book is still in print from the same publisher but several free downloads are available although page number will differ. Use your computer’s search tools 😉
Pages 40-41
I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology … Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called ‘education.’ Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part … It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.
The subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship … The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark grey.
Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.
Pages 49-50
Scientific societies are as yet in their infancy … It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments much more control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries. Fitche laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished … Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible …
The Nazis were more scientific than the present rulers of Russia … If they had survived, they would probably have soon taken to scientific breeding. Any nation which adopts this practice will, within a generation, secure great military advantages. The system, one may surmise, will be something like this: except possibly in the governing aristocracy, all but 5 per cent of males and 30 per cent of females will be sterilised. The 30 per cent of females will be expected to spend the years from eighteen to forty in reproduction, in order to secure adequate cannon fodder. As a rule, artificial insemination will be preferred to the natural method …
Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organised insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.
Page 54
After all, most civilised and semi-civilised countries known to history and had a large class of slaves or serfs completely subordinate to their owners. There is nothing in human nature that makes the persistence of such a system impossible. And the whole development of scientific technique has made it easier than it used to be to maintain a despotic rule of a minority. When the government controls the distribution of food, its power is absolute so long as they can count on the police and the armed forces. And their loyalty can be secured by giving them some of the privileges of the governing class. I do not see how any internal movement of revolt can ever bring freedom to the oppressed in a modern scientific dictatorship.
Pages 103-104
I do not pretend that birth control is the only way in which population can be kept from increasing. There are others, which, one must suppose, opponents of birth control would prefer. War, as I remarked a moment ago, has hitherto been disappointing in this respect, but perhaps bacteriological war may prove more effective. If a Black Death could be spread throughout the world once in every generation survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full. There would be nothing in this to offend the consciences of the devout or to restrain the ambitions of nationalists. The state of affairs might be somewhat unpleasant, but what of that? Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other peoples. However, I am wandering from the question of stability, to which I must return.
There are three ways of securing a society that shall be stable as regards population. The first is that of birth control, the second that of infanticide or really destructive wars, and the third that of general misery except for a powerful minority. All these methods have been practiced: the first, for example, by the Australian aborigines; the second by the Aztecs, the Spartans, and the rulers of Plato’s Republic; the third in the world as some Western internationalists hope to make it and in Soviet Russia … Of these three, only birth control avoids extreme cruelty and unhappiness for the majority of human beings. Meanwhile, so long as there is not a single world government there will be competition for power among the different nations. And as increase of population brings the threat of famine, national power will become more and more obviously the only way of avoiding starvation. There will therefore be blocs in which the hungry nations band together against those that are well fed. That is the explanation of the victory of communism in China.
Page 105
The need for a world government, if the population problem is to be solved in any humane manner, is completely evident on Darwinian principles.
Page 110
A society is not stable unless it is on the whole satisfactory to the holders of power and the holders of power are not exposed to the risk of successful revolution.
Pages 110-111
First, as regards physical conditions. Soil and raw materials must not be used up so fast that scientific progress cannot continually make good the loss by means of new inventions and discoveries … If raw materials are not to be used up too fast, there must not be free competition for their acquisition and use but an international authority to ration them in “such quantities as may from time to time seem compatible with continued industrial prosperity”. And similar considerations apply to soil conservation.
Second, as regards population … To deal with this problem it will be necessary to find ways of preventing an increase in world population. If this is to be done otherwise than by wars, pestilences, and famines, it will demand a powerful international authority. This authority should deal out the world’s food to the various nations in proportion to their population at the time of the establishment of the authority. If any nation subsequently increased its population it should not on that account receive any more food. The motive for not increasing population would therefore be very compelling.
So Russell comprehensively damns himself as an authoritarian, a racist (in the sense of races being tribes, clans or castes) and a believer in eugenics and social engineering. The system he describes and that his successors in the socialist elite are now trying to build on a global scale might pay lip service to such high minded principles as egalitarianism, and redistribution of wealth, but when discussed behind closed doors sees no need to hide the fact that it’s earliest model was ‘The Fasces’ the symbol of unbreakable power adopted by the Patrician class of The Roman Empire.
And that is what socialism, communism, fascism, statism, corporatism, whatever you call it is all about.
Greenteeth Bites 
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