Ethical Record The Proceedings of the South Place Ethical Society Vol. 105 No 6 E1 50 June, 2000 ETIIICAL TO BE ELITIST - BUT NOT ENGLISH

An elite is literally defined as the pick or flower of a group (Chambers); elitism is the favouring by government of an elite. It is of course a French term but having tried 3 emperors in the CI() the French settled for a presidential democracy as have the Germans and Americans.

As used in England, elitism we all know is an extremely pejorative term which recently gained even more opprobrium when a comprehensive girl from the north east failed to gain a place at Magdalen College Oxford to read medicine. Gordon l3rown fomented an 'elitism' media storm over claims that Laura Spence's excellent A Levels results had been ignored. Never mind she had not yet taken hcr A Levels and that she gained a place for biochemistry at Harvard rather than medicine, a less

- popular subject for which she probably would have been accepted at Magdalen.

An invidious choice by the College was inevitable as Magdalen only had 5 places to award from more than 20 good candidates, both state and private, due to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's keeping a tight curh on expenditure for medical school places. The greater scandal is that with the onset of tuition fees, loans rather than grants and heavy p6stgraduation debt, many potential students are discouraged from applying to college at all.

The advantaote of grammar schools was that poor but clever children were encouraged to lookbeyond the horizon of their peers and partake of intellectual and cultural refreshment. The present government seems to favour a coarse populism which finds the lowest common denominator, encourages football fanaticism and equates celebrity with belonging to pop groups or appearing in television soap operas.

It is quite shameful in the 2Ist century that of the world powers, the Head of State in England is neither elected nor secular but stands at the apex of persistent hereditary power and privilege of landowning classes. The prime minister is at the moment condemning those who even politely point this out.

Yet the Ethical Society for one, seeks to promote a better, democratic tbrm of 'elitism', The educational programme we organise seeks the best speakers on particular topics to which anyone interested in thinking about the subject is freely invited. Jennifer Jeynes NICOLAS WALTER MEMORIAL MEETING THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RESOLUTION Dick Clifford 4 TIIE MERITS AND MISTIKES OF ANARCHIST THEORY Isaac Ascher 10 ETHICS AS AN EXPRESSION OF EMOTION Cltris Bratcher 16 ELOI REQUIRE MORE LOCKS Leslie Jones 19 VIEWPOINTS B. Smoket; D. Forsyth D. Rooum, E. McArthtp P Rhodes, D. Shepherd. EMICAL SOCIETY EVENTS SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Conway Hall Humanist Centre 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Tel: 020 7242 8034 Fax: 020 7242 8036 website: www.ethicalsoc.org.uk email: [email protected]

Officers Chairman of the GC: Diane Murray Vice Chairman: John Rayner Hon. Rep of the GC:Don Liversedge Registrar: Terry Mullins

Editor, Ethical Record: Norman Bacrac

SPES Staff Administrative Secretary to the Society: Marina Ingham Tel: 020 7242 8034 LibrarianlEwgramme Coonlinator: Jennifer Jeynes. Tel: 020 7242 8037 Operations Manager: Frances Hanlon. Tel: 020 7242 8033 Lettings Manager: Peter Vlachos.For Hall bookings: Tel: 020 7242 8032

New Members Jean V. Bayliss, London, SE I ; Mrs. Sonia Huisman, London, NW2; Miss Alexandra Lcch, London, W9; Paul Sirvid, London.

NICOLAS WALTER MEMORIAL MEETING Sunday, 4 June 2000

A large number of friends, colleagues and relatives of the late Nicolas Miner gathered at Conway Hall to pay tribute to his memory. The following remarks were made by Norman Bacrac on behalf of the Ethical Society.

Nicolas Walter had a long and distinguished connection with the South Place Ethical Society. It is a family connection - Nicolas' grandfather, S.K. Ratcliffe, was one of the Society's Appointed Lecturers for more than 40 years until his death. in 1958. Just as Ratcliffe's language was noted for its lucidity, everyone agrees that the same could he said for his grandson. Nicolas.

In 1955 Ratcliffe wrote The Story of South Place. A reviewer said that •in its entertaining style, many illustrious individuals of the past figure in its pages...' However Nicolas once said to me that his grandfather 'had got it all wrong' (a slight exaggeration, I suspect). Nicolas was engaged in producing a new version of the Society's history, which would no dougt have corrected the errors his diligent scholarship had discovered and perhaps given a different perspective on the events: it would also have brought the story up to date. I believe this is one of the projects which Nicolas intended to complete had his retirement not been cut so tragically short.

Nicolas' father, Dr. Grey Walter,. was an innovative brain scientist who pioneered the medical use of electro-encephalography. He conjectured, not altogether fancifully, that the marital compatibility of a couple could be determined by examination of their respective brain waves. He also designed and built light- seeking robots, named tortoises. They were intended to demonstrate how quite elaborate and apparently purposeful behaviour could be exhibited by what, in neurological terms, was a very rudimentary system.

In 1977, Nicolas and I attended a lecture Grey Walter gave to the Ethical Society in the library upstairs: Nicolas found himself unable to stay to the end.

Ethical Record, June, 2000 Nevertheless I believe that Nicolas must have imbibed from his upbringing something of Grey Walter's radicalism and unconventional way of thinking.

In recognition of his commitment to secular humanism, he was made an Appointed Lecturer of the Society in 1978. Besides delivering lectures over the years. he also took on the roles of Honorary Representative and Chairman of the General Conunittee from time to time.

The most significant event in the Society's recent past in which Nicolas was involved was probably the Case in the High Court in 1980 over the question of its Charitable status. The result was a victory for the progressive forces in the Society, which of course included Nicolas, who were pleased that, against the opposition of the Inland Revenue, we were awarded charity status for Education and Mental and Moral Improvement. But what was especially important, nay vital, in this matter is what we were /70t awarded - i.e. status as a religious charity. That is something most of us are heartily pleased to be rid of. When Judge Dillon said that religion is concerned with man's relation with God and the Society is not concerned with God, and therefore the Society was not for the furtherance of religion, it followed that a part of the Society's objects, to wit: the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment, no longer really applied.

This was a matter with which Nicolas was much concerned, and in which his help and expert advice would have been invaluable in the event of our seeking to change the object formally.

„Going along with his interest in anniversaries of all kinds, Nicolas was particularly concerned that the Ethical Society should mark in 1993 the Bicentenary of its foundation in 1793. Nicolas was the Honorary representative of the Society during that year and presided over the many special events held then.

An example of Nicolas' distinctive style of writing to the newspapers may be provided by this letter, written sonie time ago. It was in response to a clergyman justifying the religious instruction of children by analogy with teaching children kerb drill:-

"Sir: The 'analogy between religious education and kerb drill... should be drawn more accurately. No one wants children to cross the road without help or to be told there is no traffic on it. But humanists want children to learn how to distinguish between real and imaginary vehicles, and to learn that the latter may be less important than the former. There is no point looking out for a celestial omnibus and getting run down by a terrestrial motorbike.

For unbelievers, and for many believers too, it is wrong to teach children either that there is or that there isn't a God, without also telling them that this is a matter of dispute which they should decide for themselves on the basis of all the available facts. This is surely what is meant by education. If Christianity is to be taught in schools, so should humanism."

We Were very pleased that Nicolas agreed to give the Keynote Address at the last Annual Reunion of the Kindred Societies on 19 September 1999. His talk, entitled 'A Century of Annual Reunions' was printed in the Ethical Record. This was also his personal farewell to the Humanist movement as an active participant. His account ended saying he had better things to do with the rest of his life. Unfortunately, he was not given the chance. His early death is a severe loss to us all.

Ethical Record, June, 2000 3 THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RESOLUTION

Dick Clifford Australian Humanist Society Lecture to the Ethical Sociem 28 Septembet; /999

A motion has been placed before the US Legislature and if passed tells the US government to persuade other governments to change their policies to ensure reform of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, adoption of the Tobin Tax, forgiveness of debt owed by the World's poorest countries, require global companies to observe labour and environment laws and much else. At present the global company is not answerable to the citizen and it is essential for these policies to be adopted if we are to restore democratic government.

I predict that this will become the campaign of the 2Ist century, comparable to the great campaigns of the past - anti-slavery, child labour, the 8 hour day, franchise laws etc. Life in western countries would not be worth much today had these reforms not been made; sadly these reforms have not flowed through to third world countries to the extent that they should have done, because these countries are often dictatorships.

The last 25 years have shown a serious deterioration in the state of the world and the state of most .nations. The previous 25 years had shown a remarkably low unemployment rate and the development of the Welfare State. this was mainly due to the general acceptance of Keynes' advice to create employment by spending money and running a deficit. But the problem of inflation was not solved and Freidmanites, taking advantage of the fact that Global companies could set up shop where labour was cheapest, proceeded to advise companies that they must become more efficient by downsizing, automation, computerisation etc. Governments had to de-regulate finance, they had to become small governments with reduced expenditure on everything including health and education.

Inflation has been greatly reduced, but unemployment has been consistently high and many people work longer hours for less pay and are fearful that their job will be eliminated tomorrow. The total world unemployment today is almost 1 billion people. Since world total population is 6 billion including children and aged people. this represents a very high percentage of unemployment and consequent poverty particularly in third world countries. High unemployment means a low demand for products with consequent low incentive for the world economy to improve.

The claims of the economic rationalists, that competition produces prosperity, have not materialised, while we are told in Australia and in America that our economy is doing very well, it is clear that the benefits are going to the rich and none of it trickles down to the poor. The 'Eastern Tigers' who were doing very well 3 years ago are now suffering conditions equal to or worse than the great depression in the 30s, and many African and South American Countries which have never seen good economic conditions are even worse off today.

The greatest harm in the last 25 years is the damage done to our democracy; much that has been achieved in the last 200 years has been whittled away, the real power lies with global companies and not with governments. Our politicians, of both

4 Ethical Record, June, 2000 major parties, believe that they have to submit to the dictates of the global company, thus our education and health services have become starved of funds, our Public Service has been sold or outsourced for private profit, and value added tax will switch more taxes to those less able to afford it.

There are not too many countries in the world which have a good democracy. We need to work at improving our own democracy, otherwise the increasing stress of globalisation and overpopulation may well cause democracy to crash. What is important about a democracy is not the Constitution that we have. whether it is the Westminster system or an American style Presidential system, but the power that we have to select the candidate of our choice and through the candidate the policy we believe to he right, without coercion of any kind (including undue influence from the media or any corporation). The government so elected should have the power to alter any Act and the next government should be able to reverse that Act it' it thinks fit. Sadly we do not see this happening today, in Britain, for example. it is clear that Prime Minister Blair is doing little to change the excesses of Thatcherism - what he is doing appears to use a lot of words with little meaning.

The Damaging Effects of Unregulated Globalisation There is $1500 billion flowing across international borders daily, a vol u me so large that no nation can ensure stability.

Globalisation forces nations to cut labour, social and enviromnental costs in order to attract mobile capital - a disastrous 'race to the bottom'.

Inadequate demand, as nations seeks to become more competitive. reduced wages and lower public spending mean less buying power. This leads to stagnation. recession, unemployment on national and global scales.

The last 25 years of globalisation have seen a vast increase in poverty, the total number of unemployed is said to be approaching I billion pedple and figures are given to show that even in the USA real average wages are down and the hours worked for those wages has increased.

Globalisation has contributed to an enormous increase in the concentration of wealth and the growth of poverty both within nations and worldwide. The 447 richest individuals in the world have a combined wealth greater than the combined annual income of the people who comprise the least wealthy half of the world population.

Discriminatory Impacts: The downward pressures of globalisation focus most on those least able to resist, including women, racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples.

Degradation of Democracy: Of the 100 largest economies in the world. 5 I are corporations, not countries. The ability of governments to pursue development. full employment etc., has been undermined by the ability of the Corporation to relocate capital offshore. There are few international equivalents to the anti-trust laws, consumer protection and other laws which provide a degree of corporate accountability at the national level. As a result corporations are able to dictate policy to governments, backed by the threat of relocation. Governmental authority has been undermined by trade agreements such as the NAFTA and the WTO and by the International financial Institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. Ethical Record, June, 2000 5 The growth of the global economy is at its lowest point in 30 years. The showcases for globalisation are now economic shambles. The South Korean economy has shrunk by 45%. Thailand by 50%. In Indonesia the economy has shrunk by nearly 80% and gross domestic product per capita has fallen from S1500 to S750.

Poverty is the breeding ground of irrational thought, of fundamentalist religion, of belief that troubles are caused by some unfortunate and easily recognisable minority. If poverty is allowed to increase in a society it will eventually lead to the destruction of that society and the extinction of science, education, humanism and democracy.

The time has come to put brakes on the deregulation that has occurred, to reclaim our democracy and the Global Sustainable Development Resolution will do just that provided we are all prepared to work at passing this resolution in most governments of the world.

The following is condensed from the original motion as presented on the Internet:

Goals or the Resolution (Section 4) 1) The Government to reconstruct the global economy to realise the following goals.

Democracy at every level of government from local to global. Human rights for all people. Environmental sustainability throughout the world. Economic advancement for the most oppressed and exploited, including women, children, minorities and indigenous peoples.

2) Governments to construct a democratic multilevel global economy that strengthens the capacity of governments to meet the economic needs of their peoples; giving due regard to Human Rights, including labour, social, environmental, economic, and cultural rights; to use international coordination and international institutions to meet these obligations; and to use the principle, that decisions are to be made as close to the locus of the actual activity being decided as possible.

Capital Controls 3)A l)National controls on capital inflow and outflow to reduce the destabilising impact of international financial speculation.

A2) Levies on currency exchange transactions (The Tobin Tax) to reduce short term transactions and provide a fund for sustainable development and environmental protection and debt relief.

Currency stabilisation - helping countries adjust to changing conditions without drastic devaluation and increases in exports.

Major economic powers to ensure global demand remains adequate to help all economies grow by expanding resources devoted to the global poor and the environment.

Discourage high-risk speculation by eliminating international bailouts which have insulated large banks and investors from the consequences of their actions.

6 Ethical Record, June, 2000 When assistance is provided for economies in trouble, the assistance should benefit the people, not the international investors who lured them into trouble in the first place.

Sustainable Development 4) Governments to counter inequality, poverty, and destructive competition by:

A) encouraging development that enhances the environment as a long term resource.

B) encourage economic measures, globally and locally that:- ensures living wages; make credit available for small and medium sized locally owned business and farms; pursue progressive taxes that reduce the burden on the poor: promote long term investment rather than short-term investment that skims off speculative profits; encourage spending on primary health care, basic education, and other social services that improve the lives of people; empower people in local communities to use their resources to address their needs, in accordance with the principles that a) International agreements should not prevent communities froin setting minimum standards and pursuing economic reliance, and b) national and international policy should channel resources to locally controlled development.

C) Pressuring creditors to write off the debt of the poorest countries and to assist other debtor countries in making sustainable development rather than debt repayment their first priority.

D) Pursuing cooperation among rich and poor countries to reduce world poverty recognising that the existing gap between the global rich and poor is unacceptable and it is unconscionable to act as if the existing gap can be a permanent feature of the global economy.

E) Encourage people at the grass roots to organise themselves in strong and independent trade unions and other organisations to insure their participation in economic decisions and distribution of benefits.

Financial Strategy (Section 6) The Government shall negotiate with other UN members a strategy to counter those aspects of the global financial system that make it more difficult for communities, regions and countries to pursue sustainable development, to structure the financial system to avoid global recessions, protect the environment, ensure full employment etc.

Shall establish 'Tobin taxes' as mentioned in Section 4.

Shall establish Public International investment funds to meet human environmental needs and ensure adequate global demands and counter economic cycles by expansion and contraction of fund activities.

Shall develop International institutions to perform functions of monetary regulation previously performed inadequately by national central banks.

Ethical Record, June, 2000 7 Debt cancellation; shall work with the G-6/8. the commercial banks, the IMF, the World Bank. regional development banks and other international financial institutions to write off the debts of the most impoverished countries by the end of the year 2000 - and have as their final goal to allow countries to pursue sustainable domestic development.

The government should urge the principle that debt cancellation should not depend on structural adjustment or similar programs. (Structural or Strategic Adjustment Loans are large loans offered to Third World Countries contingent on their agreement to harsh conditions including lowering barriers to hnports. removing restrictions on foreign investments, ehminating subsidies for local industries. reducing spending jbr social welfare, cutting wages, devaluing the curflatcy. emphasising exports at the cost of grow* food for their own people, etc. International financial organisations are in the business of protecting the interests of those who make money mbilable, without regard to the interests of the Third World country or their people who go further into debt and stanwtion. We need to be fair to all parties.)

Countries receiving debt relief should allocate at least 20% of savings from such relief to basic social services, with input from civil society in developing social service plans.

No country should be required to pay an amount exceeding 5% of its annual export earnings towards the servicing of foreign loans.

Funds received for debt relief should not be used to increase military spending.

Reform of the IMF and the World Bank (Section 7) Government funding for the IMF, the World Bank, and other financial institutions should be conditional on their reorienting their programs from the imposition of austerity and destructive forms of development to support Mr labour rights (as set forth in the relevant conventions of the International Labour Organisation), environmental protection, rising living standards.

International loan policies should not decrease the availability of credit for small and medium-sized locally owned businesses and farms, should not result in decreased real per capita spending On the part of the borrower government on primary health care or basic education, should not suggest user fees for basic health and .education services.

This is a very comprehensive section covering 4 pages including the need for open books for audit by Global Truth Commission, disclosure of information early enough for affected persons to be able to oppose or participate in the design process. It concludes by saying that the IMF should abandon efforts to amend its articles of agreement to give itself new powers regarding liberalisation of the capital accounts of its member countries (referred to a 'backdoor MAF).

Accountability of Transnationals (Section 8) the Government shall negotiate With other countries to establish a binding Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations (A corporation that acts in more than I country) requiring them to disclose toxic emissions, to disclose all their facilities, hazardous materials they import. they will abide by workers rights, environmental standards, given advance notice and severance pay when operations arc terminated.

Ethical Record, Lune, 2000 They disclose financial information and report on their investment intentions, offer employees education and job training and will provide social and environmental standards no less than required in their home country.

Governments should not be subject to trade or other reprisals for efforts to enforce the code of conduct. Our laws should be amended so that firms operating here can be held liable for harms caused abroad, all persons aggrieved can take legal action in our courts.

Reform of International Trade Agreement (Section 9) All agreements regulating international trade, including the World Trade Organisation, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and bilateral trade investment treaties, shall be renegotiated to reorient trade and investment to be a means to just and sustainable development. Governments should cease ongoing negotiations of new trade and investment agreements until such time as new negotiating authority and objectives are passed.

We Face Worse Problems There are those who believe in competition and the law of the economic jungle, there are those who are determined that little of the money that they earn will be spent on the poor and won't notice the extent education, health services etc. contribute to the money they make. But you may be sure that these people will raise all manner of objections to this resolution, they will laugh and scorn and quote complex economic doggerel to confuse us just as their ancestors did to retain slavery and long working hours.

We must keep our heads and remember that while they insist that our country be subject to global liberalisation, deregulation and open markets' meaning the right for anyone to walk in and buy us out, 'there are no international agreements to put an end to what is common practice in the jungle of big business: secret agreements and cartels, dumping and transfer price manipulation; speculation and insider dealing: financial crime, tax evasion and money laundering; and much else.' (from Le Monde Diplotnatique, May 1999) -

One of the problems that the motion does not tackle is our banking system where over 90% of the world's money is created as an interest bearing loan, not backed by assets or deposits. Paul Hellyer, in his book Stop Think recommends that money creation be split 50/50 between the banks and the government. Of course the banks would reject such a proposal. To my mind we should conduct a side campaign, writing to Bank managers and Executive Officers pointing out that the whole world is suffering from increasing debt including the USA, more peoples are starving and unemployed, governments everywhere are cutting expenditure. These problems have been getting progressively worse in the last 25 years due to deregulation etc. Your banks have gone back to using the same systems used 150 years ago. Banks in general have scorned or ignored all reform proposals. What proposals do you have to reform the banking system?

The Global SustainableResolution is a campaign to restore good purposes to public life, which has a better chance of achieving the right ends for us and the world. I recommend that we support it.

The views expressed in this Journal are not necessarily those of the Society.

Ethical Record, June, 2000 9 THE MERITS AND MISTAKES OF ANARCHIST THEORY

Isaac Ascher Lecture to the Ethical Society, 14 May 2000

Part I: Introduction Appropriately enough for one who is a member of SPES. I admire the work of Bertrand Russell and refer to his work both here and in the Book Notes.* His dislike of Bakunin is evident: but it would have been good to find much more in Russell on Kropotkin (whose work, amongst the anarchist theorists. I most respect).

I am not an anarchist. I am trying today to treat our topic from the standpoint of a political sociologist who is 'independent left'. I do not approve of a purely academic approach, pretending to be objective when it cannot avoid being partisan - which is revealed - or hinted at - at the end.

Some aspects of our topic have already been mentioned by recent speakers to the Society, viz. by Bruce Kent (26 March) who needed to refer to state sovereignty; and by Professor John Hoffman (16 April, ER May 2000) who quoted Max Weber's definition of the state: 'a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory'**.

Anarchist Theory: Merits and Origins The main merit of anarchist theory lies in its challenge to reconsider basic ideas, and in its searching criticism of social institutions such as churches, property, and the state. At the beginning of western philosophy some 25 centuries ago. Socrates said: 'The unexamined life if not worth living.' We need the stimulus of critical thinking, to which anarchist theory may contribute. However, the commitment in anarchist theory to utopian expectations in human nature and in politics is something else. I want to retain the stimulus, but reject the utopianism. In particular, I uphold Max Weber's view of the state.

The state is a most complex entity. It can protect, as well as oppress. Again at the beginning of western philosophy, Aristotle said that the poor man needs the state - even when (as is usually the case) the state appears to be mainly concerned to protect the property of the rich. The state can give security to the poor and protect what little property the poor may possess.

The State is Inherent in Society This is because a society is no mere random heap of individuals, but embodies a functional structure in relating individuals to one another, in allocating roles, in offering or imposing discipline and protection. A pioneer sociologist, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), suggested a 'demarcation' between the individual and his society: where the individual was aware of 'exteriority' and *constraint', society was

*A supplement in the form of Book Notes and Comments (7 pages) are available on request to the Editor. They include key quotations and guidelines to literature for, against, and about anarchist theory and history.

**This definition is taken directly from Weber, M., Politics as a Vocation, in: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. by Gerth, H.H., & Mills, C. Wright (Routledge 1948, 1977 p78.) Also in (e.g.) Pizzorno, A. (ed), Political Sociology: Selected Readings, (Penguin 1971, p28.) 10 Ethical Record, June, 2000 at work on him. Another pioneer sociologist, Ferdinand Mimics (1855-1936) distinguished between the historically older - tribal and familial - societies, and the later more sophisticated associational societies. According to -Hinnies, only in communities (tribal, familial) can the essence of the human spirit emerge: the individual is constrained by traditional belief, religion, mores. family law and village life.

But there tends to be an historical evolution from such a close-knit community to associational society. In this latter type, we find rational city life; private property, money and capital; doctrine, public opinion, exchange and calculation: and the enacted law of the state. There is much more scope for individual will and individual interests, fashion, and convention - but at the expense and loss of the original community situation. These sociological distinctions appear to imply that associational society, for all its formal and practical advantages, may be the source of an alienation which finds expression in anarchist protest.

More specifically, Bertrand Russell refers to the sources of anarchist theory in subjectivism in philosophy, in the Anabaptist movements and even in Quakerism; later, in scepticism and romanticism.* More recently: independent peasant communities, and craftsmen's guilds such as the Jura watchmakers provide models for a possible anarchist society.

Surely however, these models remain under the umbrella of the state and cannot be a substitute for it. When money changes hands, it was the state that issued it in the first place. Complaints procedures and the redress of grievances require the adjudication of an authority seen to be at everyone's service. Here, it is Paul Eltzbacher's definition of the state that is appropriate: 'the state is a legal relation, by virtue of which a supreme authority exists in a certain territory'n. Certainly everyone will agree that if the state can be circumvented without harm to anyone, then so much the better.

Kropotkin and Cooperation I maintain that there arc many different types of state, of societies, and of cultures; but that society entails state - the state is always there, albeit in embryo. It was early in his career that Kropotkin served five years with the Tsar's army in Siberia, prompting his interest in various subjects: natural history, geology and the co- operative traditions of peasants and tribesmen. Can such co-operative traditions really serve as models, in eliminating the state? Surely not, if in modern times there tends to be an evolution from communitarian to associational society as suggested above. It is true that the Swiss Confederation is sometimes recommended as a model. The Swiss Confederation was the product of external pressures which produced and still maintain an unusually disciplined society at the local level. Male military/militia service from the age of 20 to 48, with rifles actually kept at home, is

*Ref. Our Book Notes, pp3-4. The Anabaptists, notably originating in Zurich (1523) were the radical or left wing of the Reformation: only those should bc baptised who were old enough to understand the meaning of faith and repentance. Hence their denunciation of baptism for infants. They upheld toleration. Their movement spread to South Germany, Moravia (the Hutterites), the Netherlands and North Germany (the Mennonites), and included Strasbourg. (Details from the New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Douglas, J.D.: Exeter, The Paternoster Press 1974, p38). ** Eltzbacher, P.,Anarchism etc. (Book Notes, p2; op. cit., p18). Ethical Record, dune, 2000 I I a striking feature: discipline is already established at the level of the citizen-soldier in his village and Canton; accordingly, less state coercion need he applied at higher levels of organisation. The Swiss Confederation is admired for its rotating Presidency but attention should be focussed on organisations further down: the male domination of society to an unusual extent, illustrated some 30 years ago by the historically belated concession of women's suffrage.

A Contemporary Key to Sociological Concepts Sociological concepts such as society, culture, and state, are very awkward to handle. Yet, despite their covering both concrete and psychological elements, they do refer to real entities. To indicate what is at issue and demonstrate the inadequacy of anarchist theory, let us now look at a recent case. We are all born into these three entities: society, culture and state.

Consider the case of 6 year old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy, the subject of a custody contest between his father and his more distant relatives in Miami. Just what is his identity? On what is it based?

Most of us would probably agree that EliCm belongs to his father, and not to his Miami relatives. However, the point I am pursuing here is - in sociological terms - the question of his identity:

Society: Elian's society was and is Cuhan, but: which one? Havana (Fidel Castro) Cuban, or Miami (exiles) Cuban? Certainly he is linked to both societies via his relatives. However - apart from his father being his sole surviving parent - he is (being only 6 years of age) clearly the product of Havana Cuban society, not of Miami Cuban society.

Culture: Elian's culture is Havana Cuban, not Miami Cuban. We may presume Havana Cuba to have a more authentic Cuban culture than Miami Cuba, the culture of which is presumably adulterated by Miami circumstances and the US context.

State: Elhin's state is Havana Cuba; quite simply, Cuba. The Miami Cuban exiles contest this, as they are politically opposed to Fidel Castro who established a new Cuban state in January 1959. Of course the Miami Cuban exiles have no state of their own at the moment - but perhaps they did have one in embryo, insofar as they tried to overthrow the Castro state on 17 April 1961. On that date. Cuban exiles under US control landed at Cochinos Bay but were defeated. The invasion was conceived by the (Republican) Eisenhower administration, then adopted and carried out hy the (Democratic) Kennedy administration. (However, the view of the Clinton administration regarding Elhin is certainly not hostile to Havana. Indeed, Fidel Castro has said that the Elkin verdict by Attorney-General Janet Reno constitutes a 'truce' in the historic state hostility between Cuba and the USA).

This case throws some light on the three entities: society, culture and the state, precisely because Elian is so young that it is these entities that have hitherto given him his identity. He must be regarded as incapable of deciding for himself what choice of identity is in his own best interests - a state must decide for him: indeed, two states; plus diplomacy, and perhaps (ultimately) an appeal to international authority. These entities, existing prior to Elidn's birth, define his past and possible future identity.

These are conceptual problems to which anarchist theory cannot be applied. Given injustice and violence in the state, anarchist theory provides most powerful criticism. But sociological theory is more broadly based, attempting to appreciate 12 Ethical Record, June, 2000 the workings of society and its products - even when, let it be said, sociologists themselves can be located in the political spectrum. Of sociologists mentioned earlier, Tönnies was for evolutionary socialism. Durkheim was some sort of social democrat/radical liberal, and Weber some sort of aristocratic liberal-conservative. No matter - they pursued analytic difficulties more than did the anarchists).

Not only is the state inherent in society; we are in practical terms, in our contemporary associational society, in need of it. We need an authority providing basic regulations - a single authority, not several that may confuse and conflict. The state enforces scientific findings concerning health and safety. Currently, we need it to provide us with more policemen. The state even reflects and upholds public opinion on matters of decorum, as in the ban on nudity in public places. The list is endless. With every advance in technology, from computers to genetically modified food, we need ever-more information and ever-more state intervention and protection. Law, and punishment for non-compliance are indispensable.

In the same passage in his work in which Weber offers his definition of the state, we find him quoting Trotsky:

"Every state is founded on force', said Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk. That is indeed right. If no social institutions existed which knew the use of violence, then the concept of 'stale' would be eliminated, and a condition would emerge that could be designated as 'anarchy', in the specific sense of this word. Of course, force is certainly not the normal or the only means of the state - nobody says that - but force is a means specific to the state... the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it. The state is considered the sole source of the 'right' to use violence. Hence, 'politics' for us means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.'

Contrary to the vision of anarchists and also the vision of Lenin's 'higher phase of communist society'', it is society and its state that teach discipline and administration: habit is not spontaneous.

Part II: The Russian Revolution and the Fate of its Anarchist Movements I now have to put a cruel question: Why did the anarchist movements in Russia and the Ukraine fail? My answer is: because anarchist theory is actually excessively liberal and, in this respect, impractical. It does not permit the establishment of a highly organised and highly disciplined political party (such as Lenin's Bolsheviks). In short, there needs to be practical limits to that very libertarianism which is the particular attraction of anarchist theory. This line of thought suggests that all states, where they are not in complete chaos, have their ruling class, or elite. Here, it is to Machiavelli and Mosca that we must look for explanations (ref. our Book Notes).

• The Russian Revolution dissolved the Tsarist society and state in virtually every respect. The Crimean War (1853-56) described by Leo Tolstov in his diary under the title Sebastopol, may be seen as the beginning of the end of Tharism.*** Early in this war, Tolstoy noted the excellent rapport between officers and men, their patriotic dedication - but by May 1855, selfishness and vanity had taken over.

*Weber, M., ibid. my emphases [1.A.]. ** Lenin, State and Revolution, chapter V (quoted in the Book Notes p6) ***In terms of dissident individuals, the revolution is conventionally traced further back; to December 1825. Ethical Record, June, 2000 13 Despite some notable economic development, Tsarist Russia was no longer viable, and did not survive the massive defeats of war in 1914. Then - following the seizure of power by Lenin's Bolsheviks - two anarchist movements in particular did what they could to uphold their ideals; hut these very ideals deprived them of the organisational force to hold out against the Bolsheviks:

The sailors of Kronstadt in the Gulf of Finland, in February 1921, called for a new revolution. Mainly anarchist, and enjoying local self-government by coalitions of revolutionary parties, they were opposed to Bolshevik single-party rule. They demanded freedom of speech and of the press, freedom of meetings, and honestly- elected Soviets (workers' and peasants' councils). They certainly did not want a return to the old regime. They had already fought heroically for a truiV Soviet revolution, but now felt that Lenin's dictatorship had perverted it.

Unfortunately, Kronstadt was geographically isolated. After heavy fighting, it fell to Lenin's forces. Many surviving anarchists were summarily executed.

Lenin saw the need for an economic respite, simultaneously with a tightening of his political control. He proclaimed a New Economic Policy, relaxing the very repressive regulations which had enabled him to feed the towns and his armies; but it was the end of political pluralism, both within his own Party (with a han on factions, at the Tenth Party Congress, March 1921) and in the country at large under his control.

Peasant anarchism found its champion in the Ukraine, in Nestor Makhno (1889-1935). An outstanding guerrilla leader, he was encouraged by both Kropotkin and Lenin when he visited them, but was ill-at-ease with Lenin. Makhno was born into an almost destitute peasant family, had very little education, and began fulltime work at the age of twelve. In the Revolution and Civil War he fought for peasant rights and independence against both the Whites and the Bolsheviks, but preferred a truce or even an alliance with the Bolsheviks whenever possible. Makhno's best days proved to be in late 1919. As noted, Lenin put an end to political pluralism in March 1921. Eventually, with military defeats and dwindling support, a badly- wounded Makhno with some 250 survivors crossed the Dniester River into Romania and later settled in Paris.

In their hour of need, the Kronstadt sailors could not find adequate support in Petrograd. Makhno was not geographically isolated in the same way, hut his essentially volunteer support was also to reach its limits. 13y and large, anarchists rely on voluntary government and co-operative agreements, assuming that human nature is essentially good. Unfortunately, human beings exhibit a variety of tendencies. Certainly the call for local self-government implies a calculation of interests, hence (in conventional political terms) a political choice; but anarchist theory does not rise to a national level and does not attribute national authority to any 'centre'. Anarchists constitute a movement, but not a political party as usually understood.* In the above account, I have relied on Chamberlain, W.H., 2 vols., on the Revolution and Civil War (New York, Grosset & Dunlap/Universal Library. 1935/1965). On Makhno: Footman, D., Civil War in Russia (London, Faber 1961), and the work of Carr, E.H. - In Russia itself there is a new book: Danilov, A.A. et al., The History of Russia: the 20th Century, (USA: the Heron Press, 1996). This includes the Kronstadt story and mentions Makhno but there is no mention of Kropotkin nor of anarchist theory. Lenin's success is attributed to the failure of the non-Bolshevik revolutionary parties to work together. 14 Ethical Record, June, 2000 Here in 2Ist-century western Europe, the Tsarist state, and the Bolshevik state, are not at all easy to fathom.* Tsarism was nominally based on a threefold Slavdphil doctrine, combining Nationality. Orthodoxy, and Autocracy. These were the ideals of Tsar Alexander III (1881-94) instilled in him by his tutor Pobyedonostsev. The doctrine is sometimes called 'Caesaro-Papism', roughly equivalent to the medieval European 'divine right of kings'.

The Bolshevik state, nominally based on Marxism-Leninism, leads to even more complications - but it is very good to see in the March 2000 Ethical Reconl, the detailed article by Robin Blick on 'Soviet Communism - a Secular Religion?' (pp I 1-19).

Conclusion The merits of anarchist theory lie in its challenges to justify the authority and indeed the very existence of the state. Varieties of anarchist theory should be acknowledged; and in this regard, the analysis by Paul Eltzbacher is invaluable, furthermore enjoying the praise of Kropotkin. What anarchists have in common is the negation of the state, and above all the abolition of its use of force.**

Unfortunately, the state cannot be negated, and its ultimate resort to force is part of its nature. The state may be modified, and may be replaced by an entirely new state: first Tsarism, then Bolshevism: but unless society itself is destroyed, sonic sort of state would appear to be inherent in it, at least in embryo. The case of Elian Gonzalez was cited to suggest that, whatever personal identity may be said to be chosen, this identity will refer one way or another to a society and its state. Formal definitions of the state include, notably, Max Weber's emphasis on the legitimate use of force; and Paul Eltzbacher's legal relationship, by virtue of which a supreme authority exists.

Kropotkin was singled out for both theoretical and historical reasons. His writings were the most extensive, and his historical significance is hardly matched by any other anarchist theorist because he lived into the Bolshevik era and gave his views on the First World War with its Russian outcome.

It is to the anarchist movements of the Russian Revolution that we must look for our largest-scale examples of the application of theory to practice. Unfortunately, the anarchist attempts to establish local government did not survive in the face of the new Bolshevik state.

Now and in the future, anarchist movements may well retain their 'protest' role. I3ut - it would seem - their aspirations are inherently unrealisable.

*See Figes, 0., A People's Tragedy (London: Cape 1996/Pimlico 1997), which has won very high praise but may not be easy reading for beginners in this subject. **Ref. the Book Notes on Eltzbacher (typescript, pp2-3) etc.

WEB USERS - select ETHICAL SOCIETY, then ETHICAL FORUM

Ethical Record, June, 2000 15 ETHICS AS AN EXPRESSION OF EMOTION - The Unknown Bertrand Russell

Christopher Bratcher Lecture-Discussion to take place at the Ethical Society on 9 July 2000

This talk is a guide tq the ethical writings of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). He needs no introduction to older generations as a brave and wise practical moralist and counsellor, through writings and broadcasts on sex, education, polities and nuclear disarmament. (Their quality and range would merit a course in themselves). Russell wrote comparatively little on Ethics in the meta-moral sense, and these writings have, until recently, been hard to find. They have now been abstracted from his collected papers (referred to as CPBR), in Russell on Ethics, edited by Charles Pidgen (Routledge pbk, 1999), with valuable introductions placing them in current areas of philosophical controversy.

The evolution of his opinions recap many of our talks. As a teenager, he wrote a journal (transliterated for privacy into the Greek alphabet), in which he espoused utilitarianism as the rational advance on primitive, tribe preserving, biblical ethics. As a student, Russell followed his teachers into a wrestle with Bradleian and we can follow his maturing exit from these views in papers read to meetings of the Apostles'. These were intended for discussion, as a contribution to thoughts in common progress, and were not written for academic publication. Quite early (1894H), he sees ethics as a matter of personal harmonisation of desires, which are themselves not in the realm of reason or knowledge: his conclusion is a leap to 'really only the old Kantian rule' of universalisation, of harmony practically best achieved in oneself by accommodating the desires of others. His passing comment, that 'no ethical theory is likely to have any permanent effect in the presence of an intense passion, so the only hope lies in a correct psychology to strangle one in its infancy', may both amuse and presage his mid-life occupation as an infant educator. In Seems Madam? Nay, if is (1897), he still countenances the aesthetic benefits of postulating the Absolute, but thinks there is nothing beatific, providential, or consoling to be derived from constructs of it; such constructs are just intellectual experiences in this world, and not of the Absolute itself. For 'absolute', one could read 'religion'.

He was much taken up with exchanges with Moore. Russell concludes a most enjoyable (and personally seminal) paper, Is Ethics a. Branch of Empirical Psychology? (CPBR 1, pp100-4, also read in 1897): 'If our brother Moore will give me an unexceptionable premiss for his definition of the good, or even a hint of where to find one, I will retract. At present, I see no way of distinguishing between the good and the desired. I regard the good, therefore, as totally devoid of objectivity, and as a matter for purely psychological investigation'. Russell argued that thc good is what we desire to desire (with the former sort of desire functioning [or defined] as a reflective discriminator, whilst being none the less personal), and that asserting something to be good, 'asserts that [conjoint] state of mind'. Moore scribbled on the paper: 'Good = good'. Thus was Principia Ethica hammered out: much of it devoted to a refutation of Russell's then position, in a continuation of their debate. It was to end for Russell twenty years on, in doubts whether the statement 'This is good' is an assertion with a cognitive element at all.

[NI3: Moore went on, as we saw, to emphasise the difference between proposing what is 'the good', and defining 'good% Russell arguably oscillates between the two. 16 Ethical Record, June, 2000 Moore's argument is that 'good' and 'what we desire to desire' are not recognised as synonymous, and that if they were, asserting that something was good would lose its force.]

In any event. Russell's distinction between types of desire doesn't seem to me to be, logically or naturally, a sufficient differentiator of the ethical, even if the latter can be 'naturalistically' defined, however intuitively appealing 'second order' desires, removed form 'first order' ones, may seem'. Cannot one desire `to desire to desire', ad infinitum? And suppose one's simple gut desire is 'to do good'? What sense can one give to the good being the desire for itself ?

Howbeit, Russell became an immediate convert to Principia Ethica as is shown by his 1903 reviews of the book, and remained so for a decade. Russell attributed the change in his thinking to the observations of George Santayana, who said in 1913" that 'to speak of the truth of an ultimate good would be a false collocation of terms; an ultimate good is chosen, found, or aimed for; it is not opined.' Ethical intuitions 'are not opinions that we hazard, but preferences we feel, and it can be neither correct nor incorrect to feel them'.

At the same time Russell was at odds with the climate of righteous moralism ushering in World War I. The extent to which the scales had fallen from his eyes is revealed when, 'inspired by the bloodthirstiness of the professors both here and in Germany', he castigated the practice of ethics as unscientific and subjective, in the course of his 1914 lecture 'On Scientific Method in Philosophy'. Ethics was 'fundaMentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes'. We are back to his original objections to Moore. These are rooted in the view of Russell's mentor in other areas of philosophy, David Flume, that moral pronouncements were sourced, along with our actions, in our passions, and are a form of registration of them. This view, developed by C L Stevenson and A J Ayer; became known as emotivism; but the core of that position, that we will discuss next time, is expressed in Santayana's and Russell's observations, largely unrecognised'.

Russell's most deliberate expression of his views are in Chapter IX of Religion and Science (1935), entitled 'Science and Ethics'; a year earlier than Ayer's Language, 'Truth and Logic. The core of it reads: 'When a man says 'this is good in itself', he seems to be making a statement, just as much as if he said 'this is square' or 'this is sweet'. I believe this to be a mistake. I think that what the man really means is: 'I wish everybody to desire this', or rather, 'Would that evelybody desired this'. It is, I think, this curious interlocking of the particular and the universal that has caused so much confusion in Ethics. The above...] makes no assertion, but expressed a wish; since it affirms nothing, it is logically impossible that there should be evidence for or against it, or for it to possess either truth or falsehood.' Russell termed this form of sentence, optative, and characterises his view as a form of the doctrine of the subjectivity of values, that treats ethical disagreements as differences of taste.

Russell's abiding driver in philosophy was the quest for foundations of knowledge. If moral judgements do not have the status of a claim to knowledge (which may not be a necessary consequence of emotivism - or expresSivism, as it is currently labelled), then they are outside Russell's quest for truth. This gives rise to a piquant paradox. Russell was the most passionate and concerned of moralists; he believed that the subjects and substance of moral judgements matter, and frequently,

Ethical Record, June, 2000 I 7 following Hume, calls on those who exercise moral judgements to apply reason and logic to their prejudices. I3ut if despite this, judgements remain puffs of emotion, then why should we take cognisance of them? And where does this leave Russell's own moral cries? He, more than anyone, had reason to feel discomfited that morality appeared to be no more than self-expression, and he remained dissatisfied with this apparently forced conclusion to'the end of his life: am not, myself, satisfied with what I have read or said on the philosophical basis of ethics. I cannot see how to refute the arguments for the subjectivity of ethical values, but I find myself incapable of believing that all that is wrong with wanton cruelty is that I don't like it. I ...remain perplexed."'

The Cambridge elite society described in the last talk [ER, Feb 2000] Cleopatra or Maggie Tulliver, CPBR, 1;92-8. Defenders of a position developed from Russell's, such as David Lewis in Dispositional Theories of Value [PAS 19891, propose that values are what we are ideally disposed to desire to desire. I think that its persuasiveness, achieved by inclusion of 'ideally', is bought at the cost of importing a value term in the definition. In a minor work, Winds of Doctrine, published following Santayana's resignation of his chair at Harvard university. 11am indebted, again, to Pigden for the quotations]. Russell, who includes Santayana in his Portraits from Monoty, otherwise had little time for Santayana. J.0. Urmson's classic, The Emotive Theory of Ethics [Hutchinson, 1968], quotes an aside in Odgen & Richards The Meaning of Meaning 11923] that 'the peculiar ethical use of 'good' is, we suggest, a purely emotive use', as the first statement of an emotive position; and that it next surfaced more deliberately in journal articles by Barnes and Broad in 1934. [Broad suggested that the ascription of 'good' amounted to saying 'Hurrahr, hence, early versions of Emotivism were known as 'the boo-hurrah theory of Ethics'H Reply to Dli Munro, Notes on Philosophy, 1960, CPBR vol 11: p240. fl

A Photo: Jim Herrick

Jennifer Jeynes and Malcolm Rees were rim participants at the 20t1, Anniversary Meeting of Free Enquiry magazine, held in Los Angeles in May 2000. Other SPES members present were Jim Herrick, Harty Stopes-Roe and Keith Wood, Gen Sec. of the NSS.

I 8 Ethical Record, Jane, 2000 ELOI REQUIRE MORE LOCKS*

Leslie Jones A Report on a Recent Debate on the Underclass

'Brothers, I am sorry I have got no Morrison's Pill for curing the maladies of Society', Carlyle, Past and Present.

Some Background to the Debate In his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), Thomas Robert Malthus confounded certain assertions of the perfectibility of society. The perfect society, however admirable in principle, was not realisable, lie maintained. For population always tends to outstrip the means of subsistence and these two factors can only be brought into equilibrium by war. pestilence and famine. Concerning the reaction to his Essay, Malthus remarked that it 'rained refutations'.

In The Bell Curve (1994), the sociologist Charles Murray and the psychologist Richard Herrnste in made a comparable challenge to a subsequent generation of would be social reformers. They refuted the theory that class divisions are the products of economic and environmental factors. Such inequalities are a reflection of innate individual differences, they contended. The thrust of their argument was that in the technologically most advanced societies, cognitive ability has become the main determinant of social status. When everyday life resembles a continuous intelligence test, the individual's intellectual ability profoundly influences his or her achievement. The Bel/ Curve announced the emergence of a meritocracy, with a 'cognitive elite' at its apex.

Psychometrics is now the dismal science. Social problems appear alarmingly intractable when viewed from the perspective of heredity. For the meritocracy described in The Bell Curve is said to have its downside, since those individuals with insufficient intelligence to succeed in the information society constitute the underclass in which crime and other social pathologies are concentrated. Because the low average level of mental ability of the underclass is partly determined by genetic factors, it defies attempts to raise it by special educational programmes, according to Herrnstein and Murray. Indeed, they suspected that America is experiencing dysgenic reproduction and the depletion of its 'cognitive capital'. This is the ineluctable result of the negative correlation between intelligence and fertility, they contend.

The sociology of intelligence is a relatively new science straddling differential psychology and sociology. In one notable recent contribution to this fleld, The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability (1998), Arthur Jensen postulates a negative association between g (intelligence) on the one hand and crime, illiteracy and welfare dependency, on the other. Other social scientists have focussed on particular sets of possibly related variables in what Jensen aptly calls the g nexus. Steven Levitt and John Donohue have claimed that the legalising of abortion in the early 1970s reduced crime in the US in the 1990s (see Chicago Tribune, 'The abortion- crime rate puzzle', 8 August, 1999). Levitt, who is an economist at the University of

*In The Time Machine, II G Wells imagines a future era in which the social classes of the Victorian epoch have evolved into distinct species, an underclass of Morlocks, and an effete upper class, the Eloi.

Ethical Record, June, 2000 19 Chicago, acknowledged that few would welcome such research. The growing body of empirical evidence that genetic factors predispose certain individuals towards antisocial behaviour should also be noted in this context (see, for example, Genetics of Criminal and Antisocial Behaviour, CIBA Foundation).

Certain commentators deny the existence of dysgenic reproduction, pointing to the 'Flynn effect', the world-wide secular increase in IQ scores (see, for example, Steve Jones. In The Blood. 1996). According to the psychologist Richard Lynn. however, this global increase in test scores is probably due to changes in nutrition and has only concealed an underlying decline in genotypic intelligence. In Dysgenics (1996) Lynn predicts that the genetic deterioration in Western populations due to dysgenic fertility will become all too apparent once 'the quality of nutrition reaches its optimum'. He emphasises the persistence of differential fertility due to inefficient use of contraception by the underclass. And he accuses Western governments of increasing '...the welfare incentives for women with low intelligence, weak character and poor education to have babies'.

The Underclass Forum The Bell Curve still resonates. Charles Murray, who has exchanged ideas with shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, was one of the main speakers at a recent colloquium entitled 'The Growing threat of the Underclass'. Organised by The Sunday Times, it took place at Church House and has attracted much critical comment.

lit his opening statement. Murray unequivocally advocated the abolition of the • welfare state. He implicitly challenged the claim of Jack Straw, one of the other speakers, to be 'tough on the causes of crime'. For New Labour is the avowed defender of the.welfare state which bankrolls the underclass, according to Murray. In The Bell Curve, he suggested that welfare payments to unmarried mothers have encouraged an explosion of illegitimacy in the US, which has risen amongst white women from 2% in 1960 to 22% in 1991. lie reminded his audience at Church House that the English illegitimacy rate has also risen (to 40%). Because the unmarried mother is likely to be of low 10, she is generally a poor parent, in Murray's opinion. He therefore recommends the urgent reinstatement of her pariah status. Interestingly, Murray now tends to emphasise the correlates of antisocial behaviour (such as weak family relationships, poor parenting and lack of discipline) rather than the putative genetic causes. The Bell Curve is arguably being repackaged for a more liberal European audience.

In his reply to Murray, Jack Straw recalled an impoverished childhood in a one-parent family. After this not entirely convincing display of solidarity with the victims of social exclusion (considering his draconian attitude towards asylum seekers and squeegee merchants), Straw proceeded to his main task, shooting the messenger. Straw drew our attention to the tainted sources of The BelI Curve, which he called the outpourings of 'racists' and 'fanatical eugenicists'. Jack effortlessly destroyed his straw man.

The Sunday Times columnist Melanie Phillips also spoke in the debate, taking up a middling position between Murray and Straw. The decline of the family is Melanie Phillips' cri de coeur. She accuses the Government of refusing to support marriage in order not to offend those 'living in unconventional family units' (quotation, The Sunday Times). Far from promoting marriage and responsible fatherhood, the good father 'has been reduced to a sperm donor, a walking wallet and the mother's au pair', according to Phillips. Ethical Record, June, 2000 Despite her present rightwing posture, Melanie Phillips' views on IQ tests betray vestiges of political correctness. Leading authorities on IQ consider that it is the single best predictor of a person's eventual occupation and income. They have refuted the ill-informed accusations that intelligence tests are invariably biased against certain groups. According to Phillips, however, such tests are 'utterly flaky' and 'inherently biased towards certain types of minds'. They do not 'allow for cultural or environmental differences', in her opinion. As for Spearman's theory of g, on which the validity of these tests depends, this theory is 'bogus', she insists ('Flawed science that lets underclass take the rap', The Sunday Times. 14 May). Francis Wheen, in his report on the underclass forum, adopted a similar line. He described intelligence as 'indefinable' and recited the comforting mantra that 10 test scores are rising. Like Straw and Phillips. Wheen does not appear to have read The Bell Curve. He seriously suggests that because Murray has a PhD in politics, he is not a social scientist! (The Guardian, 10 May, 'The -science- behind racism').

Conclusion • Your reporter was not invited to speak from the podium in this fascinating debate. In truth, he is a member of an intellectual underclass and a victim of social exclusion. What follows is what he would have said had his views been solicited. The geneticist and self proclaimed eugenicist Lewis Wolpert recently asked why We demand such high qualifications from those wishing to adopt children but allow drugs addicts and people with aids to produce children. He might also have asked why the state makes education and income tax compulsory but denies itself any influence over the genetic quality of future generations, As David T Lykken has commented in an apposite article 'The Case for Parental Licensure', opponents of abortion constantly ask 'What about the babies?'. Yet they remain strangely silent about the fate of children with 'immature, indifferent, unsocialised' parents.

With the notable exception of Charles Murray, that latter day Cassandra. the level of debate at the underclass forum did not impress your reporter. Nor did most of the subsequent commentaries. 'Transcendental moonshine from ostriches', as one perspicacious observer put it. We were reminded of the following exchange:-

Margaret Fuller 'I accept the universe' Thomas Carlyle 'Gad! She'd better'.

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Registered Charity No. 251396

Founded in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement whose aims are: the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism, the cultivation of a rational and humane way of life, and the advancement of research and education in relevant fields. We invite to membership all those who reject supernatural creeds and find themselves in sympathy with our views. At Conway Hall there are opportunitiestor participation in cultural activities including discussions, lectures, concerts and socials. The Sunday Evening Chamber Music Concerts founded in 1887 arc renowned. We have a library on subjects of humanist concern. All members receive the Society's journal, Ethical Record, eleven times a year. Funerals and Memorial Meetings may be arranged. Please apply to the Admin. Secretary for memberShip, 118 p.a. Concessions (Over 65, unwaged or full-time student) 112 p.a. Ethical Record, June, 2000 2 1 VIEWPOINTS

Where I Stand Eric Stockton objects (Wiewpoinr, May issue) to my phrase 'a moral action being one that is more likely to do good than harm', on the ground that `good' is simply 'that which a moral action tends to do'. But my juxtaposition of good and harm suggests degrees of morality - better or worse - whereas `good' alone would suggest absolutes.

A god-believer might well define 'a moral action' as one which is 'in accord with God's will': and that often includes the persecution, torture, maiming, and murder of deviants. Such horrors look negligible, or course, in the presumed context of eternity.

Eric omitted the remainder of my sentence - 'firstly to human beings and then to other sentient animal species' - which clearly delimits 'a moral action' and puts it squarely in the secular context. However, I concede that a slight change in my word order would help to clarify the meaning: transpose the word `more' to three words further on. Barbara Smoker - Bromley, Kent

I was impressed with Barbara Smoker's Where We Stand notes for the Society's website. There are many things that could be added, but I thought that if there were a Humanist view on euthanasia, the environment, war, anti-capitalism, anti- globalisation, these could be added. Dorothy Forsyth - London NW3

I agree with all Barbara Smoker writes in the April 2000 El?, but not with the proposal that her notes should be put on the Society's website, as representing where the Society stands. Only those who subscribe to the opinions of our Society are eligible for membership. To stand where l3arbara stands would mean denying membership, for instance, to those who think that paranormal phenomena are probably genuine, and to those who suppose that homosexuality is a dysfunction. We should lose some valuable members.

If we are to be 'a broad church', a useful educational group as distinct from a sect, the opinions of the Society as such must be minimal and rather vague. Our humanism should remain undefined, so that forthright atheists, mystical humanists in the syle of Julian Huxley, and even Sea of Faith adherents, are all acceptable.

'Where we stand' is set out in the aims and invitation to membership, on page 2 of most issues of ER. I think it would be a mistake to be more specific. Donald Rooum - London El Do members consider that there is a core of beliefs, common to the vast majority of humanists, that the Society should actively propound? [Ed.]

Multi-National Companies Paul Rhodes (ER May 2000) gives the impression that the Nestle boycott was called because of one particular case in East Africa. In fact it was called because of the company's activities over many years in many countries of the third world (see El? Sept 99). The boycott is still active but is ignored by far too many people who ought to know better.

In the particular case Paul mentions (which I did not know about) it seems that the company very kindly set up a training programme to teach mothers to use 22 Ethical Record, June, 2000

products they did not need and could ill afford, and then when the infants suffered the mothers are blamed. Well there are still some judges in the UK who blame rape on the victims. Most of us think they should be sacked.

For Paul's enlightenment may I refer him to the Baby Milk Action Website: www.babymilkaction.org. Somewhat more reliable than his tutors at Business School in Canada. Edmund McArthur - London W5

House of Lords Reforms Thanks must be in order to Keith Porteous Wood (NSS) for presenting the secular case to Lord Wakeham's Royal Commission on Reforms to the House of Lords. In the final paragraphs of his report Keith concedes that the mandate for Wakeham and in fact the Commission's recommendations had been pre-ordained. Nothing new in this since sadly all commissions are selected to represent a particular political objective. Logic, common sense, statistical evidence or even the wider interests of society, play no part. The selection committee is selected to implement Mr Blair's programme, its members are 'Blairities' and arc 'politically correct'. The political objective is one of public relations, achieving one's self interested objectives whilst satisfying the public and media that a full consultation has taken place. Of course it is a complete nonsense for Blair (and also Prince Charles) to talk about all faiths being involved in the decision making process. By definition a member of any particular faith has a completed closed mind and only has self-interest at heart. A casual glance around the world confirms that religious groups are unable to cooperate since their creeds are mutually exclusive.

A month or so ago on a visit to the House or Lords. I observed a Sikh delegation passing through the metal detectors. The detectors went berserk as all the ceremonial knives and daggers were detected. A heated discussion then took place with the police as the weapons are religious symbols but also lethal weapons. The only way to achieve change is a prolonged media campaign that either captures the imagination of the public or embarrasses Mr Blair. As the public are apathetic and the various religious groups represent votes. I don't see either party prepared to take this one on but well done to the NSS team for presenting the facts. Paul Rhodes - London SWE9

I was very interested to read Keith Wood's article on Lord Wakeham's Commision on the House of Lords. Within the Anglo-Jewish community, depending on the source (United Synagogue (US) evidence on the Eruv Town Planning Enquiry, Jewish Quarterly survey, or the Association for Jewish Research survey), 25%/40%/60% of Jews are unaffiliated to any synagogue. (The US also claims to represent Commonwealth Jewry!)

Of the major s ynagoaal federations, the US ensures (for religious reasons) that women (who may stand aiid voteb for the Board of Deputies (BOD) of British Jews, the lay umbrella communal body) are always a minority on their local synagogal Council; the Federation of Synagogues does not permit its female members to vote, and the Union of Orthodox bIebrew Congregations quit the BOD, in 1971, because they refused to sit on the same body as the Reform, Liberal and Progressive Congregational representatives. Yet the Board of Deputies claims to be the 'sole', and the representative body for Anglo-Jewry! ' David Shepherd - London NW4 Ethical Record, June, 2000 23 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS AT THE ETII1CAL SOCIETY The Library, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, WCIR 4RL. Tel: 020 7242 8037/8034 Registered Charity No. 251396 Website address: www.ethicalsoc.org.uk email: [email protected]

JULY 2000 Sunday 2 11.00 am TIIE STAKEHOLDER SOCIETY - BOON OR CURSE? Prof. Gerald Vinten seeks a Third Way. 3.00 pm TOPICAL DISCUSSION with Terry Mullins

Sunday 9 11.00 am ETHICS AS AN EXPRESSION OF EMOTION: The Unknown Bertrand Russell. Christopher Bratcher. 3.00 pm WHO WAS OMAR KHAYYAM? Hazhir Teimourian.

Sunday 16 I 1.00 am 3rd Skene Memorial Lecture. EQUAL ETHICS FOR MAD PEOPLE Liz Sayce, Author of From Psychiatric Patient to Citizen: overcoming discriinintaion and social exclusion.

Sunday 23 I I 00 am BISHOP BUTLER ON ETHICS Dr. David E. White, SI. John Fisher College, NY, USA. Meetings resume with

SPES AND THE NSS A DAY IN THE COUNTRY

Led by MIKE HOWGATE. Visiting A VARIETY OF INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE LOCALITIES

Associated with Pioneer Ballooning, Knight's Templar and Anti- slavery campaigning, ending at Wisbech and a visit to Peekover House. Sunday, July 30 2000 Starting at lOam from Conway Hall - Book your place early! Returning 6pm ish. Coach Fare: 10

ANNUAL REUNION OF KINDRED SOCIETIES *Keynote Speech. Refreshments, Music.* Sunday, 24 September 2000 at 2.30 pm. All Welcome. October Sunday I 2.30 pm SPES AGM (Members only)

Published by the South Place Ethical Society. Conway Hall. 25 Red Lion Square. WCI 4RL Printed by Les. Bryson (Printer) Ltd. 156-162 High Road, London N2 tMS ISSN 0014 - 1690