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Ethical Record Vol The ISSN 0014-1690 Ethical Record Vol. 92 No. 10 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1987 EDITORIAL A feast of music attended on the The Annual Reunion feast of reason, as well as excellent refreshment under the aegis of IN THE LIBRARY at Conway Hall, JEAN BAYLISS and ALICE the Annual Reunion* was a stand- MARSHALL. MICHAEL GIFKINS ing-room-only and memorable played CHOPIN, BRAHMS and Jorq:IN afternoon of song, wisdom, mild with verve and sympathy. He also exhortation and 'fellowship. ERNEST accompanied the beautiful and SEELEY, of the Progressive League, versatile voice of JANET LINCE, gave a distilled and far-reaching who sang a choice range of songs, talk on "The Basis of Humanism". including BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S and For the British Humanist Asso- NOEL COWARD'S best. ciation, MARTIN HORWOOD set out On behalf of Humanist Holidays, a general strategy for developing GEORGE MEPHAM gave a succinct the influence of a rational/secular and appetite-whetting address. worldview in Britain, and he also More informally, the work of the held out the prospect of a united Humanist Housing Association was umbrella of "kindred organisa- explained by DOROTHY FORSYTH. A tions" sharing a humanist shading final delectation was TERRY to agnostic shading to atheist philo- MULLINS' speech, as representative sophy. NICHOLAS HYMAN, newly of the National Secular Society, appointed Secretary of the South complemented by an address from emphasised Place Ethical Society, the Honorary Representative of how relatively dire — no pun in South Place, BARBARA SMOKER. tended on the newspaper—the With a more open plan aspect to times may be. The inevitability of the Library, the spectrum of progress seemed very much in ques- opinion on the platform and in the tion, and what can and should be participatory audience augured well done in 1987-2000 needed to be for the immediate future of South calmly and unapocalyptically Place Ethical Society—and, inci- appraised. dentally, for the rich programme of • September 20. meetings through 1987-8. CONTENTS Page Coming to Conway Hall 2/20-22 Ole Own Dear Queen Revisited: PIERS BRENDON . 3 Review by SUZETTE HENKE of "The Handmaid's Tale" by MARGARET ATWOOD 5 The History of Ideas: H. J. BLACKHAM . 7 Isaac Newton's Achievement: NORMAN BACRAC . 9 Viewpoints: Solon and the Athenian Brothels by WENDY WELLS. Also CYNTHIA BLEZARD, BOB AWBERY, JIM ADDISON 12 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society. PUBLISHED BY THE SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON WC1R 4RL SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY -The Humanist Centre, Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Telephone: 01-831 7723. Hdl Lettings: 01-242 8032.Lobby: 01405 4125. Appointed Lecturers: H. J. Blackham, Fenner Brockway, Richard Clements, OBE,T. F. Evans, Peter Heales, Richard Scorer, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe, Nicolas Walter. Trustees: Harold Blackham, Christine Bondi, Louise Booker, John Brown, Anthony Chapman, Frank Hawkins, Peter Heales, George Hutchinson, Ray Lovecy, Ian MacKillop, Victor Rose, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe. Honorary Representative: Barbara Smoker. Chairman General Committee: Norman Bacrac. Deputy Chairman: Louise Booker. Honorary Registrar: Alice Marshall. Honorary Treasurer: Don Liversedge. Secretary: Nicholas Hyman. Hall Manager: Geoffrey Austin. Honorary Librarian: Sam Beer. Editor, The Ethical Record : Peter Hunot. COMING TO CONWAY HALL PROGRAMME OF EVENTS NOVEMBER 1987 — JANUARY 1988 Sunday (morning) Meeting (Free—collection) (Afternoon) Forums and Socials (Free) South Place Sunday (evening) Concerts (tickets £1.60) All the Society Meetings, Forums and Socials are held in the Library (unless othenvise indicated) Concerts are held in the Main Hall See Separate Leafletfor Fuller Details Sunday November 1 at 11.00 am RICHARDSCORER will discuss the report of the World Com- mission on Environment and Development (set up by the United Nations) and on the idea of a Council for Posterity. at 3.00 p.m. Special Event: The Society has decided to re-name the Small Hall THE BROCKWAYRoom 011FENNER BROCKWAY'S 99th Birthday, which is on this day. Among those coming to the naming will be STANNEWENS, MEP and the Mayor of Camden, JERRYWILLIAMS, as well as South Place Ethical Society Honorary Officers and Fenner Brockway himself. This historic occasion (near to Fenner Brockway's lively statue* in Red Lion Square—which also contains the bust of BERTRANDRUSSELL) will attract many persons of goodwill. at 6.30 pm Concert:Bochman String Quartet. HAYDN, MARTINU, FRANK BRIDGE and SCHUBERT. Sunday November 8 11.00 am NICOLASWALTER will speak on: A Century of Remem- brance. 3.00 pm Forum: Southern Africa. Details to be announced. 6.30 pm Concert: Vanbrugh String Quartet. HAYDN, JANACEK, BEETHOVEN. * Sadly knocked over and damaged in recent storms. Wontinued on page 20 The Ethical Record is poste free to members. The annual charge to Subscribers is gel. Matter for publication should reach the Editor, Peter Hunot, 17 Anson Road, London N7 ORB (01-6092677) no later than the first of the month for publicationin the followingissue. Printed by St. Peters Press Ltd., 65A St. Peters St., St. Albans, Herts ALI SEA. Telephone: 0727 51345 OUR OWN DEAR QUEEN REVISITED PIERS BRENDON Summary of the Lecture to the Society on Sunda October IL 1987 I'LL TAKE AS MY TEXTS—in what seems to be something of a secular sermon —familiar quotations from two major figures who helped to create the the climate of opinion in which the South Place Ethical Society was founded. These are Kant's remark that "Enlightenment is man's release from self- imposed tutelage" and Diderot's observation that "Scepticism is the first step towards truth". In Kant's view the great xviiith century movement of the philosophies was a sign that mankind had reached maturity and had "dared to think". And no one illustrated that daring, that determination to break away from the intolerance, superstition, dogma and fanaticism of the past, better than Diderot, editor of the famous Encyclopaedia. For Diderot smuggled into that great compendium of knowledge and opinion new ideas and moral principles which made it "the Trojan horse of the ancien regime". Enlightenment principles are as relevant as ever and it is essentially on them that I base my case for objecting to those vestiges of the ancien regime which remain today—in particular the English monarchy, the subject of this talk. It is a symptom of how deeply engrained our national prejudice about this institution is, that merely to criticise it, let alone to avow republican prin- ciples, in contemporary Britain is considered shocking. But as it happens British republicanism has a long and respectable history and, though now the faith of a minority sect, it is by no means defunct. Furthermore in global terms, even in Commonwealth terms, republicans are in the vast majority. And republicanism is the wave of the future, a mature form of government. As Victor Hugo said as long ago as 1848, "Kings are for nations in their swaddling clothes". Monarchy Makes Nonsense of the Democratic System Why is monarchy undesired by so many round the world and undesir- able as part of the British constitution? Fundamentally because it makes nonsense of the democratic system, which is elective and egalitarian, to have at its centre a hereditary institution dating back to feudal times. The feudal element indicates that monarchy is out of tune with modern times; as Austin O'Malley said in 1932, "A modem king has beconie a vermiform appendix— useless when quiet, when obtrusive in danger of removal:" The hereditary element is a guarantee that the monarchial system cannot work because it will inevitably mean that idiots, or rakes, or rogues or numskulls are going to inherit the throne. As the history of the House of Hanover illustrates, sovereigns have borne out Mark Twain's view that "kings is mostly rapscallions". A brief survey from George III to Elizabeth II scarcely reveals royalty in a flattering light. A number of counts against the monarchy, touched on from a historical point of view, deserve to be further emphasised: I. It is invariably an entrenched foe of progress. It not only supports con- servatism, it saps the moral fibre of the left. It encourages outdated love of caste, social deference, elitism, sycophancy. It legitimises artificial excellences based on birth and "breeding" instead of real ones based on worth and achievement. It glamorises un- earned privilege and affluent parasitism. And it fosters delusions of grandeur about Britain's place in the world. It encourages the press and the mass media to act as touts for royalty and to betray their calling which is to keep the wells of knowledge pure. This is the modern treason of the clerks. Ethical Record, NovemberlDecember 1987 3 It breeds secrecy at the centre of affairs because the way in which the royal preprogative is used cannot be revealed without threatening its exis- tence. As Acton said: "Everything secret degenerates; nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and publicity". It treats citizens as subjects, and subjects as superstitious savages—as (in Tom Paine's words) "a herd of beings that must be governed by fraud, effigy and show". It blinds men's understandings. "It is the popery of govern- ment, a thing kept up to amuse the ignorant and quiet them into taxes". It replaces open government in the public interest by a rigmarole of pomp and circumstance, of ritual, incantation and fantasy. It narrows down patriotism to loyalty to a dynasty. There are perfectly good alternatives to monarchy and people could be educated to see the benefit of constitutional reform along rational lines. This would give us a written constitution, a bill of rightS, a freedom of infor- mation act, an elected second chamber in place of the present tragi-comic upper house and some form of presidential figurehead who could lay founda- tion stones and act as a political long-stop in an open government.
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