Vol. 73, No. 7JULY/AUGUST 1968 CONTENTS Eurnmum..• 3 "ULYSSES": THE BOOK OF THE FILM . 5 by Ronald Mason THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF RELIGION . 8 by Dr. H. W. Turner JEREMY BENTFIAM .... 10 by Maurice Cranston, MA MAXIM GORKY•••• • 11 by Richard Clements, aRE. BOOK REVIEW: Gown. FORMutEncs. 15 by Leslie Johnson WHO SAID THAT? 15 Rum THE SECRETARY 16 TO THE EDITOR . 17 PEOPLEOUT OF 11113NEWS 19 DO SOMETHINGNICE FOR SOMEONE 19 SOUTH PLACENaws. 20 Published•by Conway Hall Humanist Centre Red Um Square, London, Wel SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Omens: Secretary: Mr. H. G. Knight Hall Manager and Lettings Secretary: Miss E. Palmer Hon. Registrar: Miss E. Palmer Hon. Treasurer: Mr. W. Bynner Editor, "The Ethical Record": Miss Barbara Smoker Address: Conway Hall Humanist Centre, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.I (Tel.: CHAncery 8032) SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS, II a.rn. (Admission free) July 7—Lord SORENSEN Ivory Towers Soprano solos: Laura Carr. July 14—J. STEWART COOK. BSc. Politics and Reality Cello and piano: Lilly Phillips and Fiona Cameron July 21—Dr. JOHN LEWIS The Students' Revolt Piano: Joyce Langley SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS are then suspended until October 6 S.P.E.S. ANNUAL REUNION Sunday, September 29, 1968, 3 p.m. in the Large Hall at CONWAY HUMANIST CENTRE Programme of Music (3 p.m.) Speeches by leaders of Humanist organisations (3.30 P.m.) Guest of Honour: LORD WILLIS Buffet Tea (5 p.m.) Tickets free from General Secretary CONWAY DISCUSSIONS will resume on Tuesdays at 6.45 p.m. from October 1 The 78th season of SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS will open on October 6 at 6.30 p.m. The Objects of the Society are the study and dissemination of ethical principles and the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment. Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become a Member (minimum annual subscription 12s. 6d.). A membership application form will be found on the back cover. THE ETHICAL RECORD (Formerly 'The Monthly Record') Vol. 73. No. 7 JULY/AUGUST 1968 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society EDITORIAL VIOLENCE never seems to be out of the headlines. The familiar back- ground of Vietnam, Biafra, India, and the Middle East was Shattered by the less expected and more intimate tragedy of the senseless, cruel assassination of Robert Kennedy, almost eerily re-enacting •the death of his brother. An obvious major factor in the American assassinations, as also in some 100,000 'less publicised deaths by gunfire during the past few years in the U.S.A., is, as most commentators agree, the easy availability of guns in that country. Some of us think there are far too many laws altogether, but, if a nation were to have but a single piece of legislation, that surely ought to be the control of lethal weapons for, as Konrad Lorenz has pointed out, man, not being equipped by nature as a killer, lacks the instinctive inhibition that other animals have against killing members of their own species. The Students' Revolution The incidental violence that has marred sonic encounters in the students' revolution now sweeping the developed world is of a different kind —at least on the part of the revolutionaries —from calculated, armed violence, whether backed by the authority and resources of a large wealthy nation, or only by the twisted minds of assassins. it is true that in Paris some of the students were guilty of incendiarism, but even they set fire only to empty cars, for use as barricades, and to an empty and most symbolic stock exchange. Fire-raising is still deplorable, and hardly likely to win support for any cause, but it cannot be com- pared with violence against human beings— such as the extreme police brutality which, meeting the first wave of non-violent revolt, provoked the retaliation and incendiarism. One-and-a-half wrongs can never make a right, but it is clear which of the two parties, police or protesters, were guilty of the whole wrong and which of the half. And we cannot leave out of the reckoning an understanding of the causes behind the widespread unrest —causes which amount to a Cause. Mr. Anthony Wedgwood Benn put his finger on it in his Llandudno speech on the participation gap in our technological society. The 'Editorial in the June Ethical Record expressed a fear of the sort of decisions that the people as a whole would be likely to make if we really had the democracy that we have in theory: but the issues referred to were issues affecting the liberties of other people, of minorities. Popular discretion cannot yet be relied on where minority rights are concerned, but people's 'participation in decisions concerning their own living con- ditions is a different matter entirely, and a basic right that is now denied them. For instance, on the arbitrary decision of town councillors, 3 elected on an irrelevant party basis, people are moved compulsorily from old but friendly terrace houses to the isolated tops of towers — which, as architects admit, could achieve the same density of housing if placed, as it were, on their side. Insidious Violence One of the specific evils most consistently opposed by young protesters for some years is official violence of a quieter, more insidious kind: the researches that have been carried out during the past half century into "bigger and better" methods of genocide; particularly, and most insidiously of all, that of "B and C" (biological and chemical) warfare. Since the last •ar, Britain has been foremost in this field — mainly at the huge research establishment on Porton Down in Wiltshire. There, year after year, the C.N.D. and Committee of 100 have held demonstra- tions to try to lift the veil of secrecy, at the same time publishing and distributing pamphlets and leaflets on the subject; all, it seemed, to little avail, since the general press, radio •and TV remained silent on the subject. More than three years ahead of them, The Ethical Record was among the first publications to tell its readers about the infamous work beina done at Porton and the sale of certain Porton products to the U.S.A. for use in Vietnam. (See, for instance, "Off the Record" in our issue of May 1965. pages 16-17.) But our influence, of course, is minimal, and the national media of communication refused to defy the "D" notices that officially "advised" them against disseminating this information. People who had dared to stand outside the Porton fence holding placards about it were photographed from official film-vans, presum- ably for M.I.5 dossiers — but TV cameras remained conspicuous by their absence. There were plenty of soldiers, police, dogs, tanks. helicopters — but no newspaper reporters. The Responsibility of Knouing Suddenly, however. the Neil of secrecy has been lifted: possibly because of a governmental change of heart, but more likely because a TV film was being produced, willy-nilly, by a determined B.B.C. producer. The weekend before the film was due to be shown, a comparatively small, almost routine, demonstration outside the Porton germ centre was. amazingly, reported •n radio, on TV, and in the national papers, for all the world as if it were the first of its kind instead of one of a long line of similar demonstrations. At the same time, there was serious editorial comment in some papers. deploring the secrecy surrounding B and C weapons in general and the Porton research establishment in particular — a secrecy which could only have persisted with their co- operation! A letter from your Editor to The Sun. applaudina their demand for an end to the secrecy. appeared on their front page on June 11 — but with careful omission of reference to their past co-operation with the authorities, which had made the secrecy possible. The TV film itself, "A Plague on Your Children", outdid any horror fiction, but with a quiet, chillina objectivity. It was sianificant that the experiments on doas, rabbits, monkeys, and other appealina animals, had to be filmed at a similar establishment in Sweden. because the authorities at Porton knew that this aspect of their dirty work would most upset the animal-loving British public. To make the film more 4 endurable, part of it showing a dog crazed with nerve gas was shown without the sound. Even so, the B.B.C. was besieged with telephone calls of complaint about the horror of the film. But should not the complaints have gone to the scientists that perpetrate such horror and the government that sanctions it (in our name) and pays for it (with our money), rather than to a medium of communication which, how- ever belatedly, allows the people to know what is going on? Perhaps most people would prefer to evade the responsibility of knowing. But surely that cannot apply to any member of an Ethical Society? "Ulysses": The Book of the Film BY RONALD MASON AN EGREGIOUS lady councillor who had a hand in banning the film of Ulysses from public showing in my district said that she hadn't read the book and couldn't understand why anyone should want to. In assuming that not many more than 10 per cent of •us have read it, I apologise if 1 am wrong on the right side, but I thought it might be 'valuable to start from that assumption and give a kind of introductory picture of what I 'believe the book to be. It is Joyce's most important work, and anyone who values great and original art should be concerned to see that it is not misunderstood.