“To Replace Our Fears with Hope” [1950]

This chapter highlights Russell’s continuing interest in the influence of psychology on politics, a connection examined in his recent Nobel Prize lecture. The human race, ever since it began to exist, has been faced with an environment partly hostile and partly friendly. Man was a rare species and must have come near to extinction. But step by step he acquired mastery over his environment. Man, at least civilized man, no longer has occasion to live in dread of nature to anything like the same extent as in former times. Aggressive hostility is usually caused by a combination of fear and greed. Greed produces desire to dominate, and this desire is projected upon the enemy and reflected back as fear. In old days, those who lived in rural districts had grossly inadequate light and warmth throughout the winter months.