ISSN 0014-1690 The Ethical Record Vol. 97 No. 1 February 1992 CONTENTS Page Do Non-Believers need Ritual? Barbara Smoker 3 Discovering Ideology George Walford 5 The Philosophy of Signs of C.S. Peirce C. Wertheim 9 Memories of the Ethical Church Derek L. Paul ' 13 Separate Muslim Schools Barbara Smoker 14 Letters 16 Editorial We have all been saddened by the death over the New Year of Les Warren, a long-time member of the Society and a member of the General Committee. A full obituary notice will appear in the next issue. This issue of the ER contains two contributions which evoke nearly extinct cultures. One is an unsolicited account by Derek L. Paul which describes a stage in the development of humanism which seems very strange to me, and doubtless others. Certainly for me, it has a great charm. I appeal to any readers with similar memories to write them up and submit them. Photographs and copies of the humanist hymn books that Derek mentions would be most welcome, they will be copied and returned. This is with a view either to publication in the ER, or to be used in whatever exhibition or book is produced for the forthcoming bicentenary of SPES. The other contribution is the letter from L.G. Smith, responding to some remarks in the previous editorial. I reprint it in full so that this very typical and symptomatically revealing specimen of that sensibility formed by the Popular Front is in the public domain. It expresses the nationalism, the dishonesty and the conservatism of that political culture whose major axis was the CPGB. Smith suggests that I was 'unaware of the conditions obtaining at that time', he implies that if I was 'aware' then I would accept his interpretation. He goes on to suggest that this defect is due to my tender years having deprived me of the 'experience'. This argument is of the same type as that used by South Africans who supported Apartheid against its European critics. The argumentis conservative because it rests on the assumption that experience is a pure, raw, theoryless datum, and that theory is an ephemeral and airy construct. It further assumes that the possible subjects of experience are homogeneous: that anyone in that time and place would have the same experience and the same views on it. Smith writes that like McColl 'we were all guilty at the time of an inability to see the effects of the seige mentality ...' If by 'we' he refers to British Stalinists then he may be correct. If by 'we' he means marxists or revolutionaries, then he is lying. Criticisms of the USSR had appeared in the 1920s by Alexander Berkman and by Emma Goldman; Ante Ciliga's The Russian Enigma was published in London in 1940; Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed appeared in 1937. These criticisms were not from an 'ivory tower': anarchists and Trotskyists were been murdered behind Republican lines by Stalin's agents. These criticisms went far beyond Smith's weaselwords that continues on page The views expressed in this journal arc not necessarily those of the Society Published by the South Place hhical Sudety. Conuay II all Red I.ion Square. l.ondon WU! 4R1. SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY The Humanist Centre, Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square, London WC IR 4RL. Telephone: 071-831 7723 Hall Lettings: 071-242 8032. Lobby: 071-405 4125 Trustees Louise Booker, John Brown, Anthony Chapman, Peter Heales, Don Liversedge, Ray Lovecy, Ian MacKillop, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes-Roe. Appointed Lecturers Harold Blackham, T.F. Evans, Peter Heales, Richard Scorer, Barbara Smoker, Harry Stopes- Roe, Nicolas Walter. Officers Honorary Representative: Norman Bacrac. Chair General Committee: Louise Booker. Deputy Chair: David Morris. Honorary Registrar: .......... Honorary Treasurer: David Williams. Hall Manager: Stephen Norley. Honorary Librarian: Edwina Palmer. Editor, The Ethical Record. David Murray. Secretary: Nina Khare. we 'found ourselves aware of at least a few disturbing facts'. It was not even as if these 'disturbing facts' were admitted and defended; but that they were denied and those who exposed them were systematically vilified. This was Comrade Harry Pollitt in 1938: 'the glorious achievements of socialism within the Soviet Union's frontiers - achievements in the teeth of Trotskyite sabotage at home and Trotskyite plotting abroad' (The World Hails Twentieth Anniversary of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1938). It is amazing that Smith can tell me that I do not understand 'working class unity' when he is still defending a tradition which smashed any workers organisations which failed to toe the party line. His letter shows that the Stalinist tradition of historical falsification is still being kept up: 'we did not obey directives from anybody, not even Stalin' indeed! The British Road to Socialism was actually written by Uncle Joe! One of the features of Popular Frontism was its displacement of class politics by appeal to constructed national traditions. This continued into the CPGB's cultural politics of the early '50s, which emphasised 'Britishness' over alien American culture - see Arena special issue June/July '51 The USA Threat to British Culture. I suggest that this was the political background to the folk-song revival and that it should not be seen just in the rosy tints painted by Smith. This nationalism reappears in the anti-German chauvinism that Smith concludes with. He is quite right that the Vatican-dominated culture which now faces many millions is horrific; there could hardly be a more telling condemnation of the old 'Peoples' Democracies' than that their citizens came to even prefer the Vatican. Smith thinks that I am a 'cynic' and that the 'fight is now lost'. His fight is lost - good riddance. But with the collapse of Stalinism the road to the recovery of the communist project is now clearer than it has been for decades. At a meeting of the Policy and Programme Subcommittee Steve Norley suggested that an issue of the ER should be a special one on the future of SPES. Whether there should be a special issue or an ongoing debate is an open question. Contributions on the future of SPES are invited. Finally, will all contributors please ensure that MSS are clearly legible. A couple of recent submissions have been on very faint computer print-outs, which causes problems. If the writer who sent in an unaddressed handwritten letter on Theocaris would like to resubmit it following the guidelines on p.3 then it may well be published. • 2 Ethical Record, February, 1992 DO NON-BELIEVERS NEED RITUAL? Barbara Smoker Summary of SPES talk 23 June, 1991 In its widest sense, ritual covers any kind of behaviour specifically stereotyped for particular recurring circumstances or occasions, and might be said to include the instinctual behaviour of most animal species for such biological purposes as courtship, nest-building, or the establishment of hierarchy. Much human behaviour is of a similar nature, but, as a conceptualising species, man deliberately builds on the instinct for ritual as an aid in the control of the complexities of human society. Every area of human society — whether tribal areas or areas of activity — has its own particular rituals. For instance, in the western world the handshake is widespread, as an indication of peaceful intentions, though its original practicality — to make it impossible to draw a sword — no longer applies. Ritualistic words are uttered at the same time, and one phrase used on first meeting that is peculiar to England — and is especially ritualistic in that though it is in the form of a question it is answered only by the same question — is "How do you do?" Narrowing the kinds of ritual to annual festivals, we have many based on the changing seasons, often in an earlier stage of civilisation as reminders of agricultural work to be done at those times. Then there are the personal "rites of passage" — that is, ceremonies to mark a turning-point in life — such as birthday parties, particularly on coming of age, with such integral rituals as blowing out the candles on the cake; and, of course, weddings and funerals. It was natural that from the earliest times there should be a religious component to these ceremonies and that the god-men should become involved with them. In fact, it is religious ceremonies and liturgy that are mainly associated with the word "ritual". If there is some positive need in most of us for various social rituals, do those of us who have eschewed all religious belief need to replace religious ritual with something comparable? It depends partly on one's individual temperament, but even more, perhaps, on the cultural expectations of the community at large. In this country, there is not a great demand for secular naming ceremonies, as only a small proportion of the Christian (and nominally Christian) population of Britain nowadays has their babies baptised. This is even more true of confirmation. In Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, confirmation is still the norm, so the greatest demand on their humanist organisations is for a secular citizen's confirmation ceremony, without which the young people from non-religious families would feel that they had not been recognised by the community as having grown up. In this country, however, this is not so. Contributions should conform to one of the Membership of the Society includes subscription following standards: to The Ethical Record Non-members may sub- On Disc - Word Star, Word Perfect, MS Word. scribe to the journal for E6/year. Include clearly legible print-out. Contribution should be sent to the Editor, at Typewritten- A4 paper, double-spaced with wide Conway Hall.