The ISSN 0014-1690 Ethical Record Vol 94 No. 8 SEPTEMBER 1989

Editorial ford and featuring the poet TONY HARRISON. May there be many more. THE RUSHDIE READINGS"... People who criticise such occasions on the grounds that they are offensive to , THE PUBLIC READING.OVektraetstrOal Muslims show an extraordinary lack of SALMAN RUSHDIE'S Harel tSCriaktic historical perspective., Since the Renais- Verses which took place,. inCColtWayli-iall sance, and particularly since the publica- On Sunday July 2 was MajOiVachisirie-.a tion of The Origin of Species in 1859; ment for the Society. Arlingeay. our intellectual and scientific progress in the Secretary NICHOLAS HYMAN:Miro • again West has inevitably involved hurting showed notable organisational Skill, this people's feelings. No advance is possible event was the first of 'its kintLin.Britain: unless established views are challenged No public platform had preViMisly been —a process which is both painful and granted to people wanfingitO,readjrom necessary. Also, no-one holding a par- Satanic Verses. SPES,moiche&o.M.1 ticular philosophical position should cite "first"—no mean feat -in-,ViesOofo'the his feelings in support of it. The only furore caused by the Iliishdiet,affair, support should be rational argument. and the:dangers and threats–A(*4 zby It's almost impossible to list .all the some of the extremist eletnéhIS.:in the intellectual freedoms we enjoy in the Islamic fundamentalist maveinent 'in West which would simply not exist if this country. fear of giving offence had been upper- The event meant thatthe SoCiety Was most in the minds of the pioneers of pointing the way to other .hbmanist earlier generations. organisations and advocates of free The subject of religion in modern thought and speech. Let's hope •these society is, incidentally, looked at in two other groups will respond appropriately. booklets soon to be published by the Recently, in the pages of The Ethical . One is What Record, the humanist movement as a is Religion? an extract from PANDIT whole was justly criticised for missing NEHRU'S Autobiography, and with a opportunities, for not taking stands and Foreword by MICHAEL FOOT. The other initiatives when there was .a positive is Ghetto Schools in Britain, by BARBARA need to. The Rushdie issue is a chance SMOKER. This argues against denomina- not-to-be-missed for asserting the values tional schools. Each booklet costs £1.50. of intellectual freedom. One promising There will be a publication launch for development since the Conway Hall both in the library at Conway Hall on readings has been the recent (televised) Monday September 25th from 6.45– "Blasphemers' Banquet" held in Brad- 8 pm. All are invited. CONTENTS Page Coming to Conway Hall 16 Nietzsche and Christianity—S. E. PARKER 3 The Redevelopment Issue Again 5 Background to Our Time—H. J. BLACKHAM . 6 Melting-Pot or Multi-Culture?—BARBARA SMOKER 11 Viewpoints 18

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

Published by the South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hall, Red Von Square,

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY The Humanist Centre, Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 01-831 7723 8-027—Edfitiy1-61463C717 2,aerPaot,11:n-i:Jc5

r'reT tcf,31 ;ill; on no '.. 4; rt t.- Apppipled..tectureEsil Harold .Blacktiam, T. F. Evans, Peter Heales, 'Richard Scol:et' Bal-haraStriokei,sHarhltiMeSaoe, - i:J AAR at Afig;ktIM MT Trils:teat-,(Sath`?Begilirthiistine :Bondi, Louise Booker, John Brown, Anthony "Chaninaripi1Peter.Heales,v DiM Li4erkedge,R491,toiercy;) fwema-cKinoii;.,Vietor -koSe,q3arbaralSinokerf-Harry StOpek-koe.'-`""'"6 'il"zu?'. vv-if -sz-Aci;liq raril tn:th ;4311v.1mml0 rn .TY:ATI1-;friT'aiii)1 Honorary;Represeatative:.);•Norman.,,Bacraci :Chairman i.GerieraaCommittee: -Barbara,Smoker...;DeputyChiarnian:i:Diane.:MtirraynHonorari:Registrari!Lesley pawsongioriorary,!Treasurer;;Don.:Liversedge. 'Secretary: Nicholas)Hyman. Hall Manager: ,GeoffreKtfAustin.,ylionocary LibrariaMi EdwinairPalmerfitEditar;„ The ;EthicalyRecordr,Tom HI`ubeos;:(asiSted byrNiehalita lijimah;ltesleypDawsoniand !JIMAddison).;Concerrsicommitree Chairman::1Lionel,Eltommi rtriotinfil ot4 f t; Gehekaltacommitte.e:.`, TheOfficepc; and Jean: Bayliss,,;fouise.-BOOkel; Richard 'BenjaMin; CYitithia Bleard',"Jit4Mond CaSsidY;,0„..N: Ellis .HilimanNaorni LeWieAlide _Marsha:lb:1LisaifrIonks;;Terri. Diahe Maiii5c-LeaValtenVncirbdVid WilliaMs. EIEOTI,1 Lro: ' cOE

1,1 3nIt AT.; 111-)trIT,-.;G: h1;;s:Itt:211:1;ETillit bfitheTlies'M 11)i .TimitI TT ii r-oiff nfir :1111I lads ,-;90,:q. —it A. S. NEILL, progressive:„.(ge,ipreferred. the;word,.frioneeritheadinassteikof Summerhdl, „didi!not; . GOldirle:#da a Jerr I cr , 't "I L )G6tding"S11;Lbid:Of:me]Eliesh.2Saiioutd; party;Of.,sCliOolboyswho are.,dibppea ,on adesertlisland'ind',beCinte.iv4ge; It ?piay:bea;Set;b"661Ciii iiiinetiehbensc ;$ Neill dhserie-ch..„: 2` " ,21 -; :iignifitilit"that"`the. rea'ding .they Coulflogail lb nonce Wa§4P0t.:practised:bytheir'rmrents and 'teachers:Any 'chaiited diSe‘When,MVen;freedoniwill be saii,alet."..f.'„1.: ;17' "' One Clifferehdelk etWeenttOlding'S';boys :and rtiy; pupils ,*,:thdr theY'fiaxgEhO iaterest in thle..:little,'AiitS;',ihey,:de het-even .knoW:Aheirtiames; .phesTalie4s'10 4 a pretectiiPelittitud&to the liitle-onesf w4lcing:,cjasi':Isiggy; who possibly neVer 'Pla)ecli,Ut'tedirigganie hi' his life, 'IS,'the 'Mily One-Who -shoWsnintelligenee' aha 'bOiirrevert to SaVagery,'Why didn't': PiggY .4-4a Ralph?" • Neilritiggeited -Hill a feliairlrmightThaVE-softefied-their"hatefulTheafts" but adds that "some suppressed schoolgirls might well have joined the-savage-gang."

The Ethical Record is posted-free t6members. The:annual charge:to Subscribers is £4..Matter for publication,should reach -the Editor,- Tom Rubens, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL (01-831 7723) no later.than the:first of the month for publication in the following month's issue.

2 Ethical Record, September 1989 NIETZSCHE AND CHRISTIANITY

Abridged from a talk given to the Sunday Forum June 18, 1989

S. E. PARKER

NIETZSCHEIS FAMOUSFOR TUE STATEMENT"God is dead". He does not, however, concern himself with arguments for or against the existence of a god, although he was a declared atheist. He even thought that the image of a god could serve as the indicator of a people's strength or weakness. It could register the waxing and waning of "the will to power" which Nietzsche believed was the fundamental law of life. When the ancient Jews were a conquering people their god, Jehovah, reflected their power. He was a god of joy, strength and "justice". When they subsequently suffered the reverses and disillusionment of the Assyrian conquest and the Babylonian exile, the image of Jehovah underwent a drastic change. From being a god expressing their triumph, he became a god who was a crutch and a consolation for their defeat and their weakness. He changed from a god of conquest and aggression into a god of the weak and the "gdod". It was this god of "goodness" and impotence that Nietzsche saw as being

- bequeathed by the Jews to the Christians. Nietzsche's "good" was, however, not the "good" of the Judeo-Christian creed. His • "good" was power and its enhancement: "What is good?—everything that increases the feeling of power. ... What is evil? —everything based in weakness. What is joy?—the emotion of power increasing, or a resistance overcome. Not contentedness, but more power! Not peace at any price, but war. Not 'goodness' but more ability ... The weak and misbegotten shall sink to the ground: that is our humanitarian slogan; and they shall be helped to . sink. What is the most harmful vice?—pity shown to the misbegotten and the feeble —Christianity" (The Antichrist). For Nietzsche the attacks made upon Christianity up to his time had not only been timid, but false. Christianity was not only a supernatural creed, it was also a morality which attempted to reverse natural selection, to thwart the course of evolution by praising the weak and denigrating the strong, who alone are the justification for life. Proof of this can be found in the fact that Christianity originated and found its first followers among slaves. Fearing their masters and wanting to avenge their inferiority, the slaves fashioned a doctrine designed to undermine and overcome their masters' domination by means of the guilt- inducing notions of sin and pity. Christianity sprang from resentment and sought to bring down the ruling caste as does its offspring—socialism. The slaves were incapable of triumphing over their masters by force of arms so they resorted to stealth and cunning. For the morality of the powerful they substituted the morality of the servile. "Christianity was the revenge of the impotent upon the potent. The success of this slave revolt caused the destruction of the intellectual accomplishments of the ancient world. The scientific method, the art of reading, the sense for fact, were "buried in a night. Not trampled to death by German and other heavy feet. But brought to shame by crafty, stealthy; anaemic vampires. Not conquered—merely sucked dry." (Ibid.) At the end of The Antichrist Nietzsche indicts Christianity as "the one great curse, the one intrinsic depravity, the one black impulse of resentment, for which no subterfuge is too vile, or too furtive, or too underhand, or too mean. I say the thing is the one indelible blot on the achievement of man . . ." Nietzsche's attack upon Christianity, however, was not as all-encompassing as the title The Antichrist might suggest. Whatever hostility he showed to Christianity he did not show to Christ. Indeed, he let Christ off lightly and focussed his hatred Ethical Record, September 1989 3 upon Paul, whom he regarded as the real intellectual founder of Christianity. He charges him with sacrificing "the Saviour: he nailed him on his own cross" (Ibid). He even blamed the disciples for possessing the "most un-Christly desire for revenge" (Ibid) as if the numerous threats of hell and damnation attributed to the Christ of the New Testament could be construed as anything other than a very Christly desire for revenge! Nietzsche, however, tries to wriggle out of this by claiming that such threats "were put into the Mouth of the Master" by the disciples. And in another place he complained that "the character of the Saviour, his way of life, the meaning of his death, and even the sequel to his death—were all altered until nothing in the record even remotely approximated to fact." (Ibid.) Just what this "fact" was and how he knew it differed from "the record", Nietzsche did not say. Indeed, so odd was Nietzsche's attitude to Christ compared to his attitude to Christianity that even Dr OSCAR LEVY, an ardent Nietzschean, was compelled to admit that "we are confronted here with a weakness in the strong mind of Nietzsche who, with all his deep insight, was more of an anti-Christian than an anti-Christ and who had, from his ancestral stock, a remnant of venera- tion for•the saviour in his blood." (The Idiocy of Idealism, 1940.) But there is more to Nietzsche's reverence for Christ than the influence of his ancestral stock. He clearly felt an affinity with Christ as a redeemer since he, too, wanted to redeem mankind—despite his statement in Ecce Homo that "the very last thing I should promise would be to "improve" mankind. I do not set up any new idols: may old idols only learn what it costs to have legs of clay." The "death of God" had created for Nietzsche an anguishing void that he sought to fill with a new goal for mankind: the Superman. "All beings have created some- thing beyond themselves; are ye going to be the ebb of this great tide? Behold, I teach you Superman." (Thus Spake Zarathustra.) The language he used to describe the advent of his ideal being was redolent of that of a religious prophet : "Awake and listen ye lonely ones! From the future winds are coming with the gentle beating of wings, and there cometh good tidings for fine ears/Ye lonely ones of today, ye who stand apart, ye shall one day be a people: from you, who have chosen yourselves, a chosen people shall arise and from it, Superman. (Ibid.) The godless were to have a new god. • And in the tradition of all good religious prophets Nietzsche, for all his scorn for Judeo-Christian morality, and his claim to be an "immoralist", is a fervent moralist. In place of the levelling and servile morality so glibly preached by the pious of the pulpit and the political platform, he sought to instal two types of morality: that of the masters and that of the slaves. Although he depicted his Zarathustra as a "destroyer" who "breaks values" this is done in order "to be a creator of good and evil". Instead of rejecting the authority of any moral code, no matter what categorical imperative is invoked to sanction it—God, Man or Superman—Nietzsche is incapable of ridding himself of the "moralic acid" he denounced in others, and remained a possessed man. His philosophy was shaped by a belief in the existence of supra-individual entities to which the individual must subordinate his interests and, where necessary, give up his life. So that the "elevation of the type 'man' " can be achieved, self-sacrifice is demanded, not in the name of God, but of the Superman. The irony is that Nietzsche himself once observed that "the man of faith, any kind of 'believer', is necessarily subservient to something outside himself : he cannot posit himself as an end, and he cannot find ends within himself . . . Any kind of faith is an expression of self-denial, and of estrangement from self .. ." (The Antichrist.) His failure to grasp the implica- tions of his own words turned him into an instrument of a fixed idea, a prisoner of his own fantasy. Nietzsche set himself up as the Antichrist. He was not. He was, at the most, merely anti-Christian. Obsessed with the Christ myth, all he succeeded in doing

4 Ethical Record, September 1989 was replacing it with a new myth carrying with it its own conceptual tyranny. In the words of A. Fourutie • "His philosophy is composed of poetry and mythology: it resembles in this way all the myths to which humanity has given birth. His philosophy is a faith without proof, an unending chain of aphorisms, of oracles, and of prophecies, and in this respect it is also a religion. The Antichrist of the dying century believed himself to be a new Christ, superior to the former one." (Nietzsche et lmmoralisme.)

The RedevelopmentIssue Again

At the meeting of the Gairal:Committee held on June 7, 1989, it was decided to set up two working,arties;tine .to investigate the possibilities and financial implications of the demolitiOni^.thid,subsequent rebuilding of Conway Hall, and the other to investigate those Saragmatters should the present building be retained but greatly improved. I write now about the'secon&Of .those working parties. The General Committee invited Naomi Lewis, STEPfikWARLEN,SAM BEER, one other and me (as convenor) to constitute the working tp'afty,,fithestigating the retention and improvement of the present building. I noW,aikJallinembers of the Society who feel sympathy and interest in our approach, ahiPOO :have information and skills to back up their opinions, to contact any4Trifein6eCofthis working party as a matter of some urgenty. I stress that whatISCtyelecledis not simply strong feeling, but relevant information, skills, and' im'aginative:ideas. Members writing to us would best be advised to send letters tO:It'ilie;Litnited Redevelopment Working Party" c/o Conway Hall. ICAYMONDCASSIDY, Wcdtham Abbey, Essex EN9

• , I refer to the correspondenée between PETERCADOGAN and NORMANBACRAC Ethical Record. in the July/August — On the subject of points of order : —Under universally accepted Standing Orders a Chairman cannot refuse to accept a Point Of Order. What he can do is to rule that a point of order is not a point of order. This saves him from those people who raise points of order knowing that the Chairman cannot decline to accept them. If the Chairman refuses to accept a genuine point of order it means that he is ' putting himself above the meeting and this is clearly a wholly unacceptable situation. In connection with the foregoing there are two other matters that urgently need to be considered. The first is the viability of the AGM decision on development. In my submission it would not stand up in a court of law in view of the contrary decision taken by the Special General Meeting. The answer to this is either to take a legal opinion or call another Special General Meeting. Secondly, there was the strange ruling at the AGM pFeventing employees who were also members from voting on these matters. There is no such provision in the Constitution. This is a matter that should be clarified and rectified forthwith. G. AUSTIN,London N8 Ethical Record, September 1989 5 I support PETERCADOGAN'S view that the motion to redevelop the site was definitely lost, when it was debated at the March Special Meeting. If the crux of the matter is that the Society's present viability is on a knife-edge in material terms, then surely before looking at other options a serious attempt should be made to reduce the running costs of SPES. JIM ADDISON,London W12 91ZP

Nicholas Hyrnan writes: As authOr of the Editorial which offended Peter Cadogan, I will again explain, in one sentence, the position regarding development/ redevelopment. It was favoured by an overwhelming majority at the deferred part of the 1988 AGM; ncit passed (lost) at the Special General Meeting; favoured (passed) by a substantial majority at the 1989 AGM—throughout, it has been favoured by.the majority of the Trustees. As has been stated preyiously, a Special General Meeting of the Society would be held, in the event of planning permission for redevelopment being obtained. A two-thirds majority would be required for it to go ahead.

BACKGROUND TO OUR TIME Summary of a Lecture given on June 25, 1989 H. J. BLACKFIAM TIMEWISE,IN OURSELVESAND IN THELIVES WE LIVE,we are three-dimensional. To exist only in the present, we would not be self-aware: we could not be human. Deprived of a future, we should be cut-off, dead. Without a past, we would have no inheritance, no genes, no experience and capability of learning. In each case, the mutilation is inconceivable. The plenitude of living is in the fruitful interplay of the present with the past and the future, conscious and unconscious. Self- awareness, learning, projection are cardinal human functions that illustrate this interplay. My title is focused on the recent past. Although 'a time dimension, it ii a metaphor taken from a space-image,.from painting: There, it is not in the focus of perception; it is put in to make up. Nature in early painting was an unregarded background in the composition. In landscape painting, it became itself the subject. In thinking of temporal sequence, from the point of view of the present, one must decide how far to go back for relevance to "our time". Whose time? How widely shared will it be? Roughly speaking, my historical background is the xixth century. That of the rising generation is the xxth century. In each, there is room for more than one Age, identified by ruling ideas and ideals, that may be strikingly different. However, what people and peoples did in the xrxth century gave us in our time the conditions out of which we make the time of our descendants. Certain common forms of social behaviour built up in Europe during that period to a point in the mid-xxth century when explosions ended an epoch that is comprehensively the background to our time, shared universally by all humanity. This social behaviour was manifested in: —exploration, mainly in the field of knowledge and its applica- tions; in expansion, of populations, of manufacture and trade, of markets and consumption, of boundaries ("Wider still and wider . . ."); in exploitation of resources and of people in pursuit of expansion; in emancipation, political and cultural—the Romantic movement exhilarated and bemused more than a genera- tion in the early xixth century. Explosion of the A-bomb symbolizes these mount- ing pressures, and dates the period : the background to our time. 6 Ethical Record, September 1989 An inheritance, effectively, is how it is perceived, received, and dealt with. The Torch of the Enlightenment was to be passed from hand to hand in the progress of the human race it initiated. CONDORCET'S "Sketch for a Historical Picture of the progress of the Human Mind", written in hiding from the Terror of the French Revolution, showed the way. Progress of the Human Mind proved com- patible with the manifestation of manifold forms of "Man's inhumanity to man", from that initial Terror to Hiroshima, with unspeakable excesses by many agents in the record on the way. Since Condorcet, the "Idea of Progress" has been served with apologies by intellectuals, and with celebration by nobody. How should we address ourselves to this colossal failure? An anatomy of failure in general brings out one thing first and foremost : one must stop doing what one goes about to do, what repeatedly brings about failure. It is nigh impossible. But failures are overcome. Exploration, expansion, exploitation, emancipation as forms of social

. behaviour are not necessarily disastrous. The question is what to stop doing that we go about naturally to do. .; The existence of "pure science", distinct from the bastard "applied science", is a myth. Pure science, particle physics, is a field of investigation that today requires engineering plants immense in size and cost. Over most of its area, science is problem-orientated. From its early days, science was what we call R & 3. Engineers were made members of the Royal Society. MATTHEW BOULTON was a Fellow, and so was JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. Science is the pregnancy of the future. Its control is all-important, but it cannot be planned without being stifled or misdirected. In its nature, it is an international tradition and an international community. That is its safeguard, and that is what has to be safeguarded. What is new .is that it has so enhanced human capability that it has added an acquired character to human nature—cultural, not genetic: there is a capability of effecting genetic and environmental modifications that is a new level of human indepen- dence and responsibility. Although it derives from specialized skills, it is a human capability and responsibility unversally shared. What that means for everyone has to be worked out, in ways to be explored. • Population expansion threatens to stampede the future, and is already the cause or aggravation of many present problems. China has attempted to face that future with the drastic policy required, but impossible to implement. Policies as serious in relation to the regional situation are required. At least they should be ecological, not political or religious, out-bidding rivals, as they have so often been. Empire is in retreat, after the Fascist bid. But defence, and the experience of defeat, prompted the USSR's virtual occupation of Eastern Europe after the war. Instead of boundaries and international wars, we have Berlin walls and armed guerilla oppositions, with masses of refugees in permanent temporary camps. • The expansion of markets is an internationally planned policy. The destruction of scarce or irreplaceable resources is a liability that has induced the Greens to stand for no economic growth, which is globally unrealistic, and would doom the Third World. All the same, the colonial legacy together with the present international economic system is also a limited doom. There is yet to be devised a workable system in which there can be a universal beneficial-participation, which can begin to tOuch the enormous weight and diffusion of poverty. It may not be possible. Meanwhile, some piecemeal measures are promising. A great deal has been learned by generally failed aid-programmes during some four decades. Expansion of consumption, when the American standard of living was the dream of the world, is a pricked bubble. The price of waste is 'recognizably disastrously high, and those who will pay are not those who have enjoyed any benefit. Husbandry, priorities, balance, management of stocks: such notions and practices have perforce become orders of the day. Ethical Record, September 1989 7 Consumption of scarce or irreplaceable resources has at last awakened us to a cacophony of whistle-blowing, alerting us to the problem of species or products in danger of extinction, from rain-forests to ivory. In this context, the exploitation of people occurs too, as with inhabitants of the rain-forests in Brazil cleared for ranching. Women and children and simple peoples and unorganized labour are still, and will be, exploited. The handicapped may be less handicapped in their lives and fortunes than the weak-handed. We live in ironic times. Marxist Communism was to be, the historic emancipa- tion of humanity through a brief dictatorship of the proletariat at the moment when the system of production and repression reached inevitable stultification. Utopia would inevitably follow. In China, when the dictatorship persisted and .the masses entered a reminder that Communism meant emancipation, they were !`dregs of society", enemies of the people. There are so-called "peoples' democracies", in which the people are given the only voice they can have. There are first-past-the-post democracies, in which a minority vote may instal a built-in legislative majority. There is at least one democracy in which the elected majority is not allowed to rule to the detriment of an oppressed minority; and the para- mount power is accused of frustrating democracy in the name of democracy; which is what IAN PAISLEY says of MIS THATCHER. In a phrase, there are democ- racies and democracies. A columnist for Newsweek recently wrote that readers of a Soviet weekly had learned the name of the colonel of the secret police who had trained the young Spaniard who in 1940 in Mexico smashed Trotsky's skull with an ice axe. "Throughout the communist empire the ice is cracking around the frozen past . . Suddenly it is exhilaratingly possible for Poles to say that Soviet forces massacred thousands of Polish officers in Katyn forest in 1940 . . . When will this stop?" He answers his question. "It won't . . . People who have worn the yoke of communism understand that a recondition of civic health is the recovery of social memory. Social amnesia is a totalitarian objective. So when the dead hand of the Future loosens its grip, people turn with a powerful instinct toward their mutilated past." So with this recovery of openness and sanity of perception, the Russian people, and the Poles and the Hungarians, are beginning to rejoin, not merelY Europe, but the human race as a whole. This brings us back to my opening point that timewise we are three dimensional as human beings. The Iranians have demonstrated another way of withdrawal from the world of their kind, not by denying or inventing the past, but by entrenching themselves in their version of it, principally to deny and defy their perception of an American version of the present. Self-exclusion f rom the real world, by manipulation of the past or the present, or otherwise, is not ultimately feasible. There are built-in physical sanctions against it. Iran is having to find its way back into the com- munity of nations, by a path of revisionism, like Mr GORBACHEV. There is a techno-economic order that is the hard core of global community. It is not a just order. Nor is it entirely predictable and under control. It is in place, it works, and it can be improved. It depends on agreements, understandings, arrangements, forms of co-operation and mutual trust. It cannot be planned and enforced. GUIZOT, a practical statesman as well as historian, in his history of European Civilization, writing with the conviction that absolute power is absolute evil, and that power can be checked only by power, nevertheless insisted that power was effective as public opinion as well as in institutional forms. He was writing in the xixth century, before the media had the ubiquity, speed of trans- mission, and influence that prevail today. South Africa has been isolated by world opinion at least as effectively as by economic sanctions; indeed, the two are interlocked. Amnesty International operates explicitly exclusively in terms of public opinion, and is widely respected and influential. The UN and its agencies depend upon and are means of mobilizing public opinion. Public opinion has been 8 Ethical Record, September 1989 informed and focused by the notorious hazards of our time, inextricably inter- connected. A community of notions prepares the way for a community of nations that are not nationalistic. In sum, we should have been made aware by the back- ground to our time not merely of human liability to unspeakable depravity in the enormities of an ADOLF HITLER or a Pot Pot but mainly of our general complicity in the guilt. There are no clean hands. Go back to that background. One thing leads to another, one thing ties up with another. We are inescapably enmeshed'in detail that cannot be unravelled, and are involved in the outcome to which blame is attached. Nuremberg was necessary and just, but "them" and "us" in that context, as in some others, were not in contrast as black and white. What we make of our inheritance is our legacy. This year Europe celebrates the bi-centenary of the French Revolution. One popular publication to which eight eminent historians have contributed is entitled The Permanent Revolution, and is sub-titled "The French Revolution and its Legacy, 1789-1989". A revolu- tion is 'historical, time-bound : it cannot be permanent. What may be inherited from it and actively transmitted generation to generation is its aspiration and intention. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is the sovereign ideal of human association, institutionally unattainable, What we can and should be bound by institutionally is political authority derived from and accountable to those over whom it is exercised. This is a revolution that reverses the age-old sanction of authority as a necessary hierarchy, lately embodied in the Nazi "leader-principle". The other major and complementary revolution that should have been permanently learned from experience of thepast is that human universality, political and cultural, is plural, not unitary. The whole weight of history has sanctioned authority from above, absolute though not arbitrary; and human universality has been consistently projected in particular aspirations as one. faith or a single imperium. These have been disastrous mistakes. These are the failures we must learn not to repeat, if we can stop doing what we go about to do that perpetuates them. These are the two .revolutions that will civilize the planet, if we can make them 'our legacy, and make the planet safe for habitation. With the alarms that are so rightly, engrossing our thoughts about that future, it may be timely to end with one of Pascal's Pensées, numbered 172: Let anyone examine his thoughts, he will find they are wholly occupied with the past and the future. We hardly think of the present; and if we do, it is only in order in the light of it to make sure Of the future. The Sresent is never our end: past and present are our means; the future alone is our end. Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and, preparing ourselves always to be happy, it is inevitable that we never be so. Interpenetration of past, present, and to come is the ideal. El

'OBITUARIES Mr. Charles Sherry

We have to report the death at the age of 80 of Mr CHARLES SHERRY of Redbridge who had been a member of South Place Ethical Society for 17 years. A secular funeral took place at the City of London Crematorium on 19 June, conducted by a Methodist friend. Full respect was given to Mr Sherry's views as an agnostic and tribute was paid to him as an internationalist who gave devoted service over a long period of years as the Secretary of the Ilford United Nations Association. We send our condolences to his family.

EDWINA PALMER Ethical Record, September 1989 9 E. S. Tew

I was sad to hear of the recent death of EYVIND SIEGFRIED (Jimmy) Tew. He joined SPES in 1982, but I had known of him much earlier as a consistent donor of books for our Library, usually through Peter Hunot, who knew him through the H. G. Wells Society. He lived in Belsize Park, and although we seldom saw him at meetings he continued to make donations of books up to his death at the age of 75. At the memorial meeting in memory of Peter Hunot, E. S. Tew was one of the contributors. EDWINA PALMER, Honorary Librarian

Nicholas Hyman writes . EYVIND Tew who died tragically in July, aged 75, had been a friend of the Society, and especially of Peter Hunot, for many years. He belonged to many organisations including, before the Second World War, the H. G. Wells Society as then organised by Peter Hunot.. He worked as a cryptographer at Ditchley Park during the war and was always reticent about this area of his life. He had travelled in every decade from his adolescence onward over large areas of the world, generally by bicycle with very little luggage. His knowledge of pre-war Eastern Europe, of Scandinavia (he was fluent in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish), North America and Wales was amazing. For over a decade he lived in Brussels as well as London, editing the International Yearbook of Organisations. A class aficionado, a compulsive indexer, and brave supporter of many causes including full employment, free speech and peace, his lifework was perhaps a contemporary archive covering the years 1939 to 1986. Together with a collection of material on organisations which he assembled with Peter Hunot. The Tew archive is to go to the Bishopsgate Institute where researchers from all over the world will fmd it an important quarry. His ascetic wit, diminutive and cheery frame, and above all his generosity of spirit are unforgotten. He will be missed by many.

FUNERAL ORGANISER — Urgently needed The British Humanist Association plans to make a part-time appointment of someone (i) to tackle the heavy demand for funeral officiants in London by expanding the existing network; and (ii) to take the first steps towards our long-term aim, of extending the existing regional organisation outside London to become an effective national network. Initially for 6 months, it is hoped to extend the appointment to one year. The job will be based in London: Applications to the BHA by 23rd September. Further details from : BHA, 13 Prince of Wales Terrace, London W8 5PG Tel: 01-937 2341 or phone Jane Wynne Willson 021427 8995. 10 Ethical Record, September 1989 MELTING-POTOR MULTI-CULTURE?

BARBARA SMOKER

(Summary of SPES Sunday morning lecture on July 2, 1989) THE AMERICANIMMIGRATION IDEAL has always been the metaphorical "melting- pot"; immigrant families to the USA being only too anxious that their children should learn the English language and assimilate with their neighbours. This does not mean that ethnic diversity has been stamped out; it means, rather, that individual diversity is encouraged. In this country, on the other hand, the mythic ideal of "multi-culture" is the one promulgated by many "progressive" , including most of our politicians of every party. They apparently fail to realise that this means appeasing the patriarchial fundamentalists and prolonging their oppressive power—the effect being to deny to their young people brought up in Britain the chance to become an integral part of the country, and to deny to their women the normal civil rights enjoyed by British women. Though I am as concerned as anybody about the right of minority groups to pursue their own chosen lifestyle—and, indeed, see this as a positive contribution to the varied general culture—I am also concerned about the rights of minorities within those minority groups (e.g. their women and their children), and of the smallest minority of all (the individual). If families come to settle in this country, surely they should be willing for their children to become part of it? By demanding their own religious schools, and the public funding of those schools, they are contriving to prevent their children from assimilating with the host community. As for those who were brought up in this country, often as moderate Muslims, but who have now espoused fanatical fundamentalism, this seems to be a com- ponent of a sort of tribalism, rather like the gang loyalty of football hooligans to their particular football club. Its function is that of a cohesive tribal force against the wider community. It therefore appeals particularly to those who feel marginalised by society at large and psychologically alienated from it. Fundamentalism emphasises the supposed pure origins of a religion, and demands the maintenance of, or a return to, its traditional values. It is manifested within many different religions, and one of its chief characteristics is its arrogant assumption of the right to impose its views on everyone else. Freedom of religious belief and practice must, of course, always be defended; but so must freedom from religious belief and practice. And in the case of communities which have come into the country fairly recently, pressures are exerted by its more fundamentalist members on the rest to conform not only to strictly religious traditions but also to secular cultural traditions. This internal oppression is very largely supported by leading politicians, church- men, and other public figures in this country, by Labour-controlled local authorities, and, ironically enough, by representatives of the race-relations industry, who are generally regarded as "progressive". Only the irrational assump- tion that each ethnic community is internally homogeneous—which is surely "racist" if anything is—can explain this misdirected support for the demands of ethnic fundamentalism. For some unfathomable reason, using a logic that they would certainly never apply to the British, these so-called progressives assume that vociferous religious fundamentalists represent the will of their ethnic communities as a whole, that the aspirations of their women can be accommodated within the structures of male domination and religious tyranny, and, in particular, that the granting of public funding to segregated Muslim, orthodox Jewish, etc., schools would be in Ethical Record, September 1989 11 the best interest§- of those ,communities. They apParentlY 'fail .toirealise that what they are actually advocating is apartheid for children, in ghetto schools. This proposed extension of-VOliintary-aided status, as enjoyed at present by RC and C of E schools, to the schools of non-Christian religions, would mean the rapid proliferation of 'such schoolesegregating the children of -irinnigrant families from the host population. Indeed, most of the parents of such families realise that 'State the'ilestiiiiterdits of:: thefinchilaiii;;7 but. itutheir bWh sehoOls'WeretaVnilablelithatittsdloOlzfee; they' vidUld preSsureS /nits thein bYitheiribifnieligithist leaderi Id' use tit& Segreilied ktii:.15.3 Deem:J.1e ..,J Cita' E if J.L.F! J( IT — One plausible argument used in the demand tor Muslim .(and-other,nom Christian) schools is the one of parity with ChriStians. As bing as Christian sects salloots," thelnignifientl' religidnie'slienleohargroliiidiroftecinity, be"giVerrthe_Sarne abidej: Inptactice, 1liciiiieVer7 the- hrthfWi effeet . Of iifigleL§iX

rehgionSisdCliqsIIslini' arid ZrthdiloxfAidaigniThliereriiiithe'niàr& ffindariientilial in their education and in exposure to ideas at valiiii6E withytliage-ror ifie hale backgroundfrrocrira)() itittittherk, ‘,11o(Puw. h04-Ite).110-,fli - Irfauc:tiT 41GIh/anirehsettie'-beit idolistion=to this.okrity' ptobkm Its not toteXtend the present .tithuro WOOS 'it Mit altogether. d ittedl titer is likehiTendfili"slklii tied& ifiditiliiiqat folorebitia,ri-Ogibrisciheir-EiviiiiChoolVisitlaiiitarihertitreinaM eCtihitian*ieliirEh kehobli!int: tha coltiiitrY.EttlitrthineififiCirirYritiehatireciddiiiiitliche'COMe tiegrinitiefir; nd Ihe'velibleridea5band'irie`iiiiitcOe'lhaf twnloinnidre}ffionki?:espeCjaffl'if theNanglie */11 113,(03 • th W1y&is very:4 uctr _e'iit1&I %&dUli afp 'ii't,nã1, even the eilithriali5f therairtent3isitieuorili6qVi4; iit '.,"3,113.r.1 zatl.at:C11/ . 3102alla 10 iecofffe , ,dpla '1WAY:Meg /1/fil AilvocacY Of: the . public fithding,of ,non-Cliiiitian denominational schools,in the nhme of ,religious parifY ii closelyparallelid:birthat Many Member& of the Eitablishirient—chtirehritin, judges, politielans-orevery major Party,• and eyen Christian' evangelicals (Who are sUre that tliealonéthavp eternal' truth)—haVe beta falling 'oVer' ttieinselVes to' del:nand 'the ex-fen-Su:1V law- to Othei 4-reliakoitBut inhOnld ObViikii'llint:'fai'fiViril hang extended to non-Christiiiiieligiong7the blasphemy law should ba'tothllY'ag011ihed drausriended. It ProSectitions under theppusting,blailhernY taiv are, allays brought by priyate biliybbdies; hot .1W-the Difector 'of., Public Prosecution's; and ii is"likelY"that fUndanientalist Muslinis,, for instance, lould put Mrs WhitehoUse in the shade in their eagerness tb Use suella taw, Even if their litigious efforts' diernot reault in manY conviction; theY would undoubtedly:have the effect of Making rinblishers fearful of incurring the expense§ of such a prosecution, and this -alone would have the effect of imposing a /invite censorship. Giving in to. fundamentalist demands is the same as giving in to blackmail or terrorism: the next demand is even bolder. So where is all this appeasement going to end? We could soon have Muslim religious leaders in this country demanding, in the name of religious freedom, that they be allowed to follow the Koranic penal code within their own community. In the nal= of freedom of religion they must surely be allowed to chop off the hands of any members of their dommunitY caught stealing and publicly to stone to death any of their Women caight in iitultery.4. If that demand were made, what would be the response of the progressive race- relationS appeasers? •. . 12 Ethical'Record, September 1989. u.CAgaiffiEwarmilstsconsider the fabric of our own cUltfire. Thé&iüiiry'thiidw" s' the hard4dfirtighti of its ponulation as a whole slthuldnofbe wiivecrtberreidilY in fayounof (the newcomers; generally in the name of religionn!a -etc' '1'Whon *the liteMATOLL'Al.r. KHaiiINI 'promulgate& ' in his own death throes, the tiotbrioUs -death 'Sakai& 'bh Ski.Varr Rusrumna; British" citiZen of MUsliin origin livifig in' Briraiiieue itiveinnient• was slow and half-he'aiied in its eon: dertination of it;(and'inemberS'of die-Labour Puity joined With th6T6ries'iii abjeCt anOlogeti&-regFetsrfonhe hiitlfeelingi of 'Muslims' Sffffiff'SpokeSinen'of ' the rilajöt feliguinthe' kehbfaholibf-"Canterb6ry utgifiFtliet eXtension 'of blaSphentY protectioditOdslamaanthotherseligioria;,. rather thanerehouncing it for his own) A largeasMuslimldemonstratiran waSytheriL organised tos demariduthelextensith11'of blasphemy law to Islamism siiu lo Tt oftee, 7:1e4c5ci •19;tio ,21.:WhileEdisagreeingliwithl thatu demand, sI!.wduld naturally!!upholth thew right; of anyone to (demonstratemeaceablysincstippormornit!!)HoweVerithot(thilY. wastthe Muslimsdemonstrationtfarifrom theaceable;thut the IblaiphemY •issue !Wei! largely lostkiniviolent lincitenientetomiurder)(No 'attempt was. Made !by( the Mushily leaders thernselves orubyl thmagencies thf Oaw!!ane &der- in r!this country lojorevent cthe so-called march from settingloff. from( Hyde -Park-With:model -gallows frOM Which swung effigies. of Salman Rushdie, ,with ...plapards,,ande,banners calling/or/ his murder, and "Witli;ilifftriada-of :deinOnstiatori.Yellifigkill 'till Those. guilty( of: thistincitettientito:mitrd&T! were! aPpirentlY:MOt told)1either, by the organisers or by the police, that this was prohibiterotiutherdeidthistratieM nor were any„aryetsaimade(on.a. chargeipf,Meitement4EveattheseAerannstraters ailfeStaljatesife physi4l.kmiencg; against the policerwerei-eleaaeff without ;charge: NoLcArAithCAM- lislillk!PPRW.silN111??419tks94(I.cleYiSicn 4.4e, tPSaliiIogIngrder:baXe eapiosecnteff iler.(this,,OtEence,!;SayingythnsAnut`effnillicimpunitwEritish-laws [email protected]()M1(1Slimsthamnro£CedefflIPJUrther Acts ofE:cgolencp (luch as arson) and }CagecOntinded their monstrous demaddslomthefibanning; of The Satanic Verses and for the death of the author. Many other Muslims in-thinffiratty are, it -53tiffSifritraPalled and ashamed by all this, and realise thatrnothingds more likely to cause seal racist hustility:against their whole commiffillyrthittethelit %fees' kalvd)thase orttli religious leaders aficlIthe:rabble tiehindrthem:11'he ride:relationithithaVff therefore startedisayingithat Salnia6RushdieSliould hivepknownthettenhafi to -Virile Such' an "offefisivetthook anff that thelMblishers1thightiteowithdrVii. To!bercon: sistent;. thekt woulth also . have. tO decry \ the . Original!publication! Of (PAmesMge!of Reason, SHELLEY'S Queen Mab, Weirs:Ghosts, 'and'thotawneagiescenteol-Maii, which were nojess offensive to-the funffamentalistspktheir(day. avnim It is unlikely. thit Mushni dethandi• at the presept,time in1 this country' would. haVe been s6 extreme had not theif "fandiiiiebtalist leidefaiOtrivii? inth2eaflier demands for &minified frrait Various lisVS'in the'ilainTorreligien:Thi`initakide; our slaughter' laws, which deraand the •Pierstantiihelif iniraali, killeff1fOlf 'ffieat; are waived in favour of both orthodox Jewish and Muslidlieligicnii niethickli:Of slaughter, which forbid pre-stunning. (Each of these religions denies that ita particular method is cruel; but agrees that the othei- one is! ). ' T. These religious lobbies are so powerful that they can thus override, with virtually no public protest in this land of supposed animai-lovers,,the humane slaughter law for farm animals. If this law is unnecessarY, .to dnsure" that animal'ilaughter IS as humane as poSsible, then it should be repealeff; if it. is reisonable, 'then it should apply to all. No one would be forced to eat am/ foeffprohibitedby,his/her religien: there is amPleVegetarian food available. : ..." ' • Having once allowed the Muslim method of slaughter; the authorities then acceded to the demand to have halal meat served daily in all schools with a Ethical Record, September 1989 13 substantial number of Muslim children—as though there were no acceptable alternatives, such as vegetarian dishes, packed lunches, and meat meals at home. I have become quite accustomed, over the past few years, to the charge of being "racist" whenever I have opposed the provision of halal and kosher meat, the waiving of conservation and planning laws for the building of mosques, the demands for publicly-funded schools for Muslim and orthodox Jewish girls, and other such special provisions. The same charge was repeated when I was instru- mental in allowing the anti-Zionist play Perdition to be put on at Conway Hall last year after it had been denied access to theatres and halls all over the country. In vain have I protested that it can hardly be racist to oppose policies that are put forward by fundamentalist co-religionists who are not always of the same race and opposed by some other people who are of the same race. However, I feel that I am vindicated by a very promising new organisation, Women Against Fundamentalism, which has been set up mainly by Asian women, and which I have been delighted to discover and to join. They too are castigating the British race-relations industry for its promotion of the public funding of separate schools, of an extension of blasphemy law to cover all major religions, and of third-world fundamentalist demands in general. From the perspective of their own third-world background, the Asian members of Women Against Fundamentalism see the demands of Islamic religious leaders as basically a denial of , individuality, and sex equality; not as legitimate cultural aspirations. It is true that many Muslim women cling to the symbolic veil and their traditional submissive role—but that is just what brain-washing does to people. In the days of slavery, many slaves were similarly opposed to the abolitionist campaign; fearful that they would never manage to support themselves. Does that mean that the abolitionists—including our own MoNam CONWAY—were wrong to liberate them? 0

SPES Responds to a Public Rook-Burning with a Public Reading On Sunday July 2, over 220 people gathered in the large hall to hear readings from SALMAN RUSHDIE'S controversial novel The Satanic Verses. The meeting was arranged by SPES's Secretary, NICHOLAS HYMAN and that vigorous defender of free speech, musician LARRY ADLER. Larry was chairman, and kept the audience in good humour with a stream of irreverent jokes. MP's MICHAEL FOOT and Shadow Arts Minister MARK FISHER (WhO called himself an atheist) readily accepted invitations to read passages, and both emphasised the importance of the event. There were also very effective readings from poet ROGER WODDIS, novelist MARTIN AMIS and -playwright ALAN PLATER. Egyptian writer ADEL DARWISH, Sudanese lecturer KHADIGA SAFWAT, and GITA SAHGAL (from "Women against Fundamentalism") completed the impressive panel of readers—not forgetting Larry's own contribution. Playwright and novelist FAY WELDON much regretted she was unable to get to the meeting. Trenchant comments on Islam, the Koran and the Rushdie affair can be found in her recent pamphlet.1 After the live performers the audience, who listened with rapt attention throughout, saw and heard some choice extracts read by Salman himself—on video. This brought home the human tragedy inflicted by the "Imam's" latwa.2 (For those who still haven't read it, Khomeni appears in the book as a monstrously enlarged Imam swallowing Marching columns of devoted followers.) But the author's enforced isolation has not staunched his ideas. Rushdie, writing as a secular humanist, hopes his novel will encourage Moslems to view the beginnings 14 Ethical Record, September 1989 of Islam as a purely human event and to question the excessive influence of "the tribe of clergy"—hence the latter's ire and accusations of blasphemy. As usual at SPES, the meeting concluded with questions from the audience. I found this a bit of an anti-climax after experiencing magical moments during some of the readings, but it did serve a purpose. Afterwards, DEV DEODHEKAR and I tried to tell a very indignant young Moslem questioner that in criticizing his religion, we were not rejecting him as British. NORMAN BACRAC

1 "Sacred Cows", Counterblasts No. 4, Chatto and Windus. (in SPES library). 2 Decision.

Lewisham Humanist Group and "Satanic Verses" The London Borough of holds an annual open-air event called Lewisham People's Day, with free stalls for any voluntary organisations in the Borough that wish to take part. This year's event toola place in a large park on Saturday, July 15, in glorious weather, and thousands of families spent the after- noon there. The Lewisham Humanist Group had its usual stall at the fair, for propaganda purposes combined with a fund-raising sale, most of the items for sale being secondhand goods and books. The books were both humanist and general, both new and secondhand. This year.a particular focus of interest was our inclusion of SALMAN RUSHDIE'S Satanic Verses among the new books displayed for sale, with posters all round the stall announcing the presence of 'the book and proclaiming that we stood for Free Speech and opposed the blasphemy law. We had previously informed the local press of our intention to sell this book on our stall, and one of the papers LOOK a special interest in it, sending a press photographer along to the stall and interviewing the Group's officers about it before, during, and after the event. We had also informed the local police of our intention, and they seem to have kept a discreet eye on our stall for any signs of trouble throughout the day. Afterwards, as we were packing up at the efid, a police inspector came over to the stall to confirm that there had been no trouble. In fact, the response of the public had been almost entirely positive, and our display of the book was one of the main talking points of the day. Walking round the park, one heard people on all sides mentioning the book on our stall. As for those who spoke to us at the stall, they made such comments as "I'm glad to see someone standing for free speech", "You're braver than I am", and "Good luck!" There was only one really adverse comment, when one man (surprisingly, an Englishman) came up and said "I wouldn't buy anything.from a stall with that book on it!" There was also one Indian or Pakistani who, while looking at the things we had for sale, was asked if he would like to buy a copy of the book: he recoiled, exclaiming "It would get me into trouble! "—which suggested that he, personally, did not feel strongly about the alleged blasphemy. Because fe* people come to a family fun day in a poor borough prepared to spend £12.95 on a book, we actually sold only one copy of it during the afternoon, but we all felt that having copies there was well worth while. It not only made a stand for freedom of publication, it also helped to make local people more aware of our Group—and certainly made the event more interesting for our own members helping with the stall. We urge other humanist groups to follow our example. . BARBARA SMOKER(Chairman, Lewisham Humanist Group) Ethical Record, Sepiember 1989 15 SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY The Humanist Centre, Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 01-831 7723/242 8032

PROGRAMNIE OF EVENTS COMING TO CONWAY HALL HUMANIST CENTRE Sunday (morning) Lecture (Free—collection) (Afternoon) Forums and Socials (Free) South Place Sunday (evening) Concerts (tickets L2.00)* AU the Society's Meetings, Forums, Socials and Classes are held hi the Library (unless otherwise indicated) Concerts are held in the Main Hall

SEPTEMBER Sunday September 24 at 2.15 pm Annual Reunion of South Place Ethical Society, with guest speakers from the National Secular Society and other kindred organisations, as well as entertainment and refreshments. Keynote address: NICOLAS WALTER(Rationalist Press Association) Are Humanists Human? A consideration of the place of the Humanist Movement in human society and the place of human beings in the Humanist Movement. OCTOBER Sunday October 1 at 11.00 am PETER HEALES (title to be announced) is an Appointed Lecturer of the Society and the classes on Philosophy, hopefully continuing in 1989/90, have helped many to understand contemporary humanist current thoughts. at 2.00 pm . Meeting of Policy and Programme Committee (open). , at 6.30 pm Concerts begin with: Musicians of the Royal Exchange. MOZART Piano. Quartet E Rat major K493, DvORAIC Strings- for Quintet (with Double Bass), GMAG Dp 77, CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 F Minor Op 21, String Quintet an by Count Waldersee. Sunday October 8 at 11.00 am Loom BARROW: Science and Hierarchy Around the 19th Century. Professor Barrow is the author of Independent Spirits (London 1986). Current research projects include Popular Opposition to Vaccination and also Darwinian ideas around 1900. He teaches British history at Bremen University. at 6.30 pm Concert: ProArte Piano Quartet. MOZART. Friday October 20 • at 7.30 pm Committee for the reform of the blasphemy laws (in Conway Hall). 16 Ethical Record, September 1989 Country Dancing The Country Dance Group which is organised with the Progressive League resumes its activities on Saturday September 15 from 3 pm to 6 pm in the Library, with a short interval for tea. EDA COLLINS will again be our tutor, and some instruction will be given for the first half an hour. Everyone is welcome. •

iat

HUMANISM AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY NOVEL

Tuesdays 6.30-8.30 p.m. by JIM HERRICK In this ten week course five representative novelists will be considered. Two weeks will be spent on each writer, one on the general ideas and background as they relate to , the other on a more detailed study of a particular novel. I. E. M. FORSTER: Humanism and the individual. E. M. FORSTER. Howards End. H. G. WELLS: Humanism and optimism. H. G. WELLS: Tono Bungay. • VIRGINIA WOOLF: Humanism and .- VIRGINIA WOOLF Mrs: Dalloway. A/4GUS WILSON: Humanism and evil. ANGUS WILSON:Hemlock and After. SAMUEL BECKETT: Humanism and pessimism (with a hindsight glimpse at Joyce). 10. SAMUEL BECKETT:Malone Dies. It would be interesting to follow up with a course on Humanism and the xixth century novel in similar vein, taking, say, George Eliot, Meredith, Hardy, popular fiction, Mrs Gaskell. And then humanism and the contemporary novel with, say, Iris Murdoch, Patrick White, Salman Rushdie, Maureen Duffy, Brian Moore (who is constantly annoyed by being assumed to be Catholic, because he writes about belief). Commencing Tuesday, 26th September. Thursday evening class to commence, it is hoped in October—details to be announced in next issue. Tickets, season tickets and information: from Honorary Concerts Committee Treasurer: Miriam Elton, Toad Hall, Copperkins Lane, Amersham, Bucks HP6 5QF. Telephone: 0494 726106. sae,

May We Visit YOUR Garden? Grace Adams has written in to suggest that SPES members living in the suburbs of London may be prepared to welcome visitors to their gardens, say between 2.30-6.30 pm. We would be pleased to hear of any members who would like to do this and suggest they ring in to discuss the arrangements. Announcements of the details can be made at our Sunday meetings. Ethical Record, September 1989 17 Viewpoints

Colin Bell's counter-argument to CND policy—that weapons of mass destruction cannot be disinvented—is beside the point; what is proposed—and required—is not their disinvention, but the removal of the perceived need to deploy them. In the wars since 1945 he refers to, weapons of mass destruction have been available either to the protagonists or to powers whose vital interests have been threatened—Britain in the Falklands, and China in Tibet, have possessed nuclear weapons. Both sides in• the Gulf War have had chemical weapons, and both Russia and America, whose interests were threatened, possess nuclear and chemical weapons. Nuclear weapons are supposed to act as a deterrent to war, but this is patently not so. The 40 years of peace argument is not only factually incorrect, since the great European powers have fought by proxy through client states in the Third World. Even if nuclear weapons made states more cautious in considering war as an option, they cannot deter nuclear war absolutely, since nukes cannot deter accidents, insanity, or brinksmanship.

DAVID IBM' regularly uses the word "gnoseological" which I have .never seen defined in any dictionary; but more importantly he has never defined it himself. Is he trying to impress us with how clever he is, or does the word serve a useful purpose? If the latter, perhaps he will do us all the service of defining it. He asserts that "all our values imply two opposite poles". The flaw in this belief is that logically, good does not predefine bad but ungood; right does not predefine wrong but unright, and so on. His examples of tallness and leanness being meaningless without the existence of shortness and fatness is fallacious; both tallness and shortness only have meaning in that both tall and short people deviate from the norm. It is possible to set up a group of people divided into two groups: one consisting of those significantly taller than normal, and the other consisting of those not significantly taller than normal, and the other consisting of those not significantly differing from the norm. In this case, tallness and normality have meaning, but shortness would not; such a tribe would not have a word for shortness. Besides, there are no such things as absolute tallness, absolute shortness, absolute fatness, absolute leanness, or even absolute normality; there are only degrees of tallness, and so on—eVen relative normality. Certainty and doubt are not polar opposites in his sense. Truth and falsity are often treated as polar opposites, and the Law of the Excluded Middle insists' that a proposition is either true or false; but this ignores the existence of proposi- tions—(a) whose truth or falsity is not known through lack of any evidence; (b) whose truth or falsity is not known through lack of any evidence; (b) whose truth or falsity is not provable (cf. Goedel's Theorem); (c) whose truth or falsity is not certainly, but only probably known—that is, they may be at once possibly true, and possibly false. It appears to me that the Polar Fallacy—the fallacy, for instance, of identifying ungood and bad—that is, of treating something or someone not entirely good as entirely bad—is disturbingly common. Anyone guilty of this fallacy does not need bad in himself to bolster his own self-image; in fact he positively needs to deny bad in himself, and to protect it onto others. But this Polar Fallacy is not universal, and is not required in order to create a satisfactory self-image; in fact a satisfactory self-image is only achievable by dispensing with it. COLIN Mtas, Amersham on the Hill, Bucks HP6 18 Ethical Record, September 1989 The "Caring Professions As a caring Professional, I disagree with the points made by DAVID D. WEDGEWOOD (Ethical Record, June '89). The way we live now makes it impossible for all the caring to be done by family, friends and neighbours. Caring has become too'complicated and far-reaching, and it has become necessary for volunteers to be joined by the caring professions. In the xvinth century the parish did no more than look after the burial grounds, the poor law institutions—the work houses. Over the last two hundred years, there has been a proliferation of laws making local authorities responsible for a whole range of services that could never be provided informally. We. now have home helps, meals on wheels, Occupational and Physio-therapists, social workers, day centres, nurseries, and a range of services for physically handicapped, mentally ill, mentally handicapped and elderly people.. Family size has shrunk; there 'aren't .so manycarers; .and there are far more people needing care; and more people are living longer. It is possible to "care" anti:be a paid professional at the same time. Compassion alone is not of much practical use. It is also necessary to know the whole range of services available. The real frustration is to recognise the needs and be only too aware of the shortfall. DOROTHY FORSYTH, London NW3

Responses to Barbara Smoker's Talk on Monks and Nuns That "the religious life" for "the average woman" was "a softer option" and undertaken for "more rational motives" ("What Motivates Monks and Nuns?", Ethical Record, June '89) must surely be based on fact when taking into considera- tion the lives of the majority of women in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Indeed, whether to become a wife oi. a nun was akin to choosing between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea! It was acceptable -in mediaeval . society that all wives would be physically abused by their husbands that churchmen used this as an argument to coerce young girls to become nuns, leading to , their consequent sexual exploitation. Hence, Barbara Smoker's statement that "in the Middle Ages many of the sexual scandals concerned .secret tunnels between the male and female sections of .monasteries". Christian marriage was based on a slave-and-master relationship. Men were exhorted from the pulpit to "beat their wives and wives to kiss the rod that beat them". The Pauline doctrine ("Let the woman learn in silence and with all subjection") of the headship of men over women was alive and well and the dictums of the. Big Book gave men complete domination not only of women but of children and all other living creatures on the earth. Such was the Church's loathing of women that it is well to reflect upon, certain utterances of some of its most illustrious sons. "Marriage" said TERM-WAN, that early Christian Father of the Church, "was a moral crime and more dreadful than any punishment or any death". St. Bernard postulated that it was "easier for a man to bring the dead back to life than to live with women without damaging his soul", adding, somewhat colourfully, that the female voice "is like the hissing of serpents". Characteristically, St. Thomas Aquinas assigned a "good value of 30 to marriage as compared with 60 for widowhood and 100 for lifelong virginity", and added, "a wife is lower than a slave because a slave may be freed but woman is in subjection but a slave is not". Martin Luther, who thought himself a kind and benevolent husband, said, when Ethical Record, September 1989 19 his wife "gets saucy, she gets nothing but a box on the ears" (I can find no record as to whether Mrs. Luther suffered deafness in later life.) Another example of Luther's "benevolence" was to instruct that all odd-looking children should be destroyed at birth "for they were clearly the offspring of demons". The deceptively cosily-named Friar Cherubino in his xvth Century "Rules of Marriage" instructed : "Scold her sharply, bully and terrify her. And if this still doesn't work . . . take up a stick and beat her soundly, for it is better to punish the body and correct the soul than to damage the soul and spare the body". The publication of Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) in 1486 by two of the Church's "dear sons", the dominican witch-hunter priests Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger (the latter believing that all women were potential witches, and whose loathing of them was so intense that one suspects that he would only have been satisfied if the whole of the sex were obliterated) sealed the fate of those who dared to criticise Church policies; and to be punished by horrendous tortures and certain death was a powerful deterrent to women from deviating from the accepted norm either in thought or action. Clearly, life in past centuries for "the average woman" whether inside or outside convent walls was no doddle. CYNTHIA BLEZARD

I was interested to see Barbara Smoker's sensible account of the lives of monks and nuns, but sorry she made no attempt to describe the main possible pay-off from the life they choose: a pay-off more rewarding than material security, or, say, deep personal friendships (now classed as homosexual, even when asexual, sad to say! ) To call this pay-off "Union with God" will not impress readers of the Ethical Record. However, the particular frame of mind that this gives people has been known to thousands of people including atheists, and Buddhists, (who admit no knowledge of God). The research on mystics was conducted by Bertrand Russell, an atheist. He found just the same features as Le Shan in his work on healers. I am disappointed that South Place and other Humanist organisations don't seem interested—or are, at least, seldom concerned about this. This other frame of mind, which Freud called "oceanic", is characterised by great energy and directness, feelings of deep contentment, unity, timelessness, intuitiveness, and non-judgementalness. But, again, it is not dependent on religion; and atheists can enjoy it. Maslow has characterised it by the phrase "peak experience". Zen Buddhists call it "Sartori", and for humanists and many Christians Jesus's teaching makes far more sense if we suppose that this was what he usually meant by the "Kingdom of Heaven" (not an afterlife). Colin Wilson has described how to reach short peak experiences by a physical technique which I forget, but it involves strain followed by release. It can possibly be identified with the euphoria felt by people who have climbed a mountain, or by those who have run to exhaustion, or even risked death in motor races or by playing Russian Roulette (eg Graham Greene) etc. There is also some evidence that babies on the breast for long periods (rare these days, perhaps) enjoy this frame of mind, and, as you recently pointed out, that people who feel they are dying have such feelings very intensely, too. The oceanic feeling can last for seconds—including a detailed replay of one's life (eg while falling)—to years. It seems to come in different degrees, and can fade away imperceptibly. It is experienced for a few minutes by most people some time in their lives—and possibly by almost everyone as they die. 20 Ethical Record, September 1989 We may pity the choice of people who go into convents and monasteries, but we should be aware that some of them know they want this different frame of mind, others probably sense the possibility of it. (A few have it already according to, say, The Nun's Story.) But, we don't have to talk in parables, or hedge it round with miracles and odd beliefs now, and isn't it time Humanists took it seriously? TIM EILOART,Huntington PEI8 7 BY

The South Place Library EDWINA PALMER'S report as Honorary Librarian mentions that the library 'is used for research "by more than may be generally realised." May I, as Edwina's asListant and as a librarian by profession, add some remarks of my own? Her comment is •a salutary reminder of the library's potential to the many members whose attitude seems to remain at the "books do furnish a room" level. Foi example, at the SGM this question was put to the architect: If we move the library can we save the pannelling? In other words, Never mind the books, keep the backdrop. What we should ask ourselves is do we want to stay with this view and have a dwindling collection, or do we want a national collection of freethought literature, widely known and extensively used? If we do not collect the literature, who in the country is doing it? The present SPES library consists of the archive library and the general library. The archive library contains books by and about leading freethinkers. This material was deliberately hived off into the office on account of its rarity value. It has a good card catalogue but its position in an office makes access difficult. I wonder how many users of the University and British Museum libraries know of this special collection? The general library is probably equally unknown outside the membership, yet it is a unique collection reflecting the interests of 19th century freethinkers. It is not primarily intended to fulfil the needs of students at our classes but its singularity would certainly attract researchers if it were better known. (It contains titles that are not listed in the B.M. catalogue.) However it suffers from serious administrative defects: (a) the card catalogue (a compilation by many hands) is •incomplete, inconsistent and inaccurate; this means we do not know what 'we have got; (b) the physical condition of many books is very bad—but there is no binding fund; (c) open access in a room that has many uses means increasing book losses, not to mention dirt; (d) there is no systematic updating of the stock with relevant current publications because the book fund is so small (flOO); a random check showed that there are no copies of : Budd—Varieties of Unbelief; Herrick—Vision and Realism; nothing by M. Page or G. A. Wells and only an anthology by M. Knight. If our purpose is an educational one, classes will be increased and yet there will be no students' library on the premises to support them. At the moment the University library can be called upon to supply book boxes. Better still would be a separate students' library with multiple copies of the most needed titles. There are three possibilities for the library: (1) adequate funding to pay for a full time librarian, new stock and a printed catalogue; Ethical Record, September 1989 21 the transfer of the collection to an institution willing and able to do the above for us; the status quo, relying on voluntary help and donations. Yours sincerely, J. M. HOARE,London W13

Further acquisitions to the South Place Lending Library Modern Social Theory. Percy S. Cohen. Black List (The Inside Story of Political Vetting). M. Hollingsworth & Richard Norton. Power & Equilibrium in the 1970's. Alastair Buchan. World Human Rights Guide. Charles Humana. The World Economical & SOcial Crisis, Fidel Castro. Food, Energy & Society. David & Marcis Pimental. Architect or Bee? (The Human Price of Technology). M. Cooley. The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy. Jacob Burckhardt. The Volunteers. Raymond Williams. The Rushdie File. Appignanesi/Maitland. Midnight's Children. Salman Rushdie. Logic & Knowledge (Essays 1901-1950). Bertrand Russell. Human Knowledge: Its Scope & Limits. Bertrand Russell. Charles Darwin—the Years of Controversy. Peter Vorzimmer. "Charles Darwin". Gerhard Wichler. The Passionate Sceptic—Bertrand Russell. Alan Wood. Coram's Children (Story of the London Foundling Hospital in the 18th Century.) Ruth McClure. The Transcendental Temptation (A Critique of Religion & the Paranormal). Paul Kurtz. Eritrea—Images of War & Peace. Glenys Kinnock. What to do when someone dies. Consumer Association. English History 1914-1945. A. J. P. Taylor. Sugar and other Stories. A. S. Byatt. Glasnost & Lenin (Behind the New Thinking), Francoise Thom and David Regan. A lifetime of Dissent—Corliss Lamont. Letter to My Husband (Notes about Mourning and Recovery). Jill Truman. We are most grateful to receive many of the above volumes (for addition to our LATEST ACQUISITIONS $ection) from Mr. Francis Hunot in memory of the late Peter Hunot, and other books have been donated by E. Tew, Roy Silson, David Yeulets, Joyce Hoare and Francis Hunot. In addition other books have been purchased by the Society. It would be appreciated if members borrowing books would return them within four weeks in order to increase circulation and minimize the sending of reminders. EDWINAPALMER, Honorary Librarian

22 Ethica/ Record, September 1989

TWO POEMS BY. pETER HUNOT ,..13eter,,Hurtotl,(1914;1.989). was, as readers:of ,the February 1989 and scores of Iailidrissues lealigLel an individual for Whold "Many:faceted" is amajor. — _ nnder- statement. keer:itha iisue'Ynearly-bver- ran hiiihrniseHelhaeiPaketZOf fii.prierliS;.rairiVell4girS116Wrilhis 'PaintingSF f hiniself 'read ithein fOr year.1.-Isloil:Was.41e'rsur-e' of= the poems' whereabouts. Sybil Hunot has nowv-lehiiid :preliminary ithstet;:iferetwol,c;thevfirst •,from•r1962., aind thetseconchifrom•1965. To:be saVoured2alkY4 :mit; iiiw ithtifir! "ks;') 47i1. 7.,b14"7;:ri Kci "bi-ww .-eiibuttr.r4 urtiUntitled?. illy/ r10553:131t. .Z13. 1.11ve thoira I 00 !oirljoitikhydiejegroywilfilmflyiny:finien:"Iflaft• IlifAL: And as yet in?irlY•Vision'.) I" ,;ri() OV1-- ;Forarnst not chain-link too, The future my certain heir, This I say not once but three times. For the jaws-OUdiath'braved, Life has sprung from the dragon teeth. Then again I wave the wand r , And leave behind what I haxe created. ' the'iiihtle MIK ' ,'"'unth ths•wvaidig. CIS I am iconoclast and rebel .12h/ri:ir:flq.1j ailv4 because, endlessly, one‘thing, ban, 34ir Feeds on another— . „ "el M.?je I 0) ufc:;?..3.11 Va.14 - Men ", . "Tivirti on"grain and sheep; - -.- %CC 310Eri 110.; 3 n 'The cryStat on• the solution-A qr.): ' - :413 2.151i rs '1;4 • „ , , -11b11:14 Wig Tit,,,,ittiL1.4,rilo" atmospp,CTAPilirie,Thi H 1.);,C4 Lib& 6,2!:C...,te.`Lr4"f:"1".,•PercePtilii,r11,)mi:Ifk, C;ii;1111,11 allic"ftila.0(4.tigs the Bilitirwr. 4.10. ".11W .1.-."141-21W!1 tficAN /: L 3U1S4'-'1:ft 3"-A0tr.11!4 f)th cSiDC1 3:1 141'05,011,1i.WtylanT tninorg'derr bcj r•1,";. lip ' ;/;:leimal4ThOtigIrdead "Redd frdin.Auden , ; , • , • IYIfi And./sddileiie '" " ..npailifidwhad•ay.1.! z,.i , Yozilt1 ' Premature a y, - - Cti" LILI Hei VOiée'recdfdeciciail:-' " tfie l ; H„ vO . ice' — Of smoothy/Tory Du Cann. "Trust the boys" ,' "All's well in the best of possible worlds." A casual variety— Yesterday Katharine Mansfield's Limpid letters Mentioning Gurdjief H. Looking like an Arab As he milked kneeling goats. God bless the B.B.C! Ethical Reicird, September 1989 23 REVIEW In Tune, Geoff Watson. £5.70. The Farley Press, 49 Woodfield Drive Winchester, 5022 SPY. We have all for years sought to find a meaning in life and Geoff Watson takes us down the path of searching. To discover that the answer is to be "in tune with what IS" may then seem to be an anti-climax. However, you may find a great deal that is refreshing along the way. The author sees our main problems as being ecological. Within 50 years world population will lead to the production of heat and other pollutants that:could challenge anyone's aim to "save the world". Yet the remedy lies in our own hands. We can do it if we have the will. Standing in the way are prejudice, apathy and closed minds. The greatest danger is the belief that God can save us. Yet religion ' is not entirely dismissed—just as long as we know that we ourselves are respon- ible for ourselves.'No one else will do it for us. STEVEMCLEOD, Portsmouth, Hants

Brains Trust As an experiment, South Place held a Brain's Trust on Sunday afternoon of June 11. The team consisted of NORMANBACRAC, CYNTHIA BLEZARD, DON LIVER- SEDGEand DEV G. DEODHEKAR(replacing DAVID WEDGEWOOD,who WaS getting married). It was well attended. The questions supplied and discussed were:

There has been considerable fuss about Blasphemy — but is not Apostasy a more serious problem? This inevitably led to a discussion of SALMANRUSHDIE and the problem of what the KORAN really says, and whether it contradicts itself. BARBARASMOKER objected to the police tolerance of banners saying "KILL HIM! " as part of the Moslem procession through London. Dev said mixed Hindu- Muslim marriages were common in India but it was pointed out that India had a secular constitution. The Trust agreed that Apostasy was really no problem. Does the Humanist movement lack Evangelists? The word Evangelist was considered ambiguous. Barbara Smoker and NICHOLASWALTER could be con- sidered Humanist Evangelists but not in the same sense as BILLY GRAHAM.Lack of money and modesty might explain our low profile. Is South Place failing to fulfil its charitable objectives? To this question the Trust gave an emphatic No. We were doing our best with the resources we had. RICHARDBENJAMIN once more proposed his scheme to make South Place more academic by awarding degrees in Ethics: the Trust thought this would NOT help. A lady from Greenham Common wanted Practical Ethics and read a long passage about the Army building a village in England it could blimb. There was a dispute over whether the average humanist talked too much or too little. The question of what to do about the thousands who call themselves humanists but never join us was raised again. A newcomer suggested it was time we were more active in schools. "I have been told you would not destroy a believer's faith. Do you agree?" For someone in deep personal trouble the Trust would agree but we would always try to answer someone making regular religious propaganda. It was agreed that the Brains Trust was successful but the next one should have at least one young person. S.B.

Printedby St. PetersPress Ltd., 65A St. Peters Street, St. Albans, Herts ALI 3EA. Telephone: 0727 51345