Quote: Bertrand Russell on Patriotism

• badgirl
  January 1st, 2008 at 6:57 pm

  Well of course Russell wrote that. He was an atheist as well as unpatriotic. Is there any greater coward?

• Woodwose
  January 1st, 2008 at 7:12 pm

  As an aside, the use of emoticons should be considered when making statements that someone might misinterpret as serious.

  In response to the question though - Noel?

• redphone
  January 1st, 2008 at 8:12 pm

  I’d really like to know what year he said that. A lot of history happened in his lifetime, over the course of very important stages of a person’s maturity development.

  I’ve done some research, but so far no luck. Can’t even figure out what book (if any) it came from)

• Jonathan Brown
  January 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm

  That is only assuming that your country is in the wrong. If your country’s stance ties in with your moral beliefs fighting for your country is no longer idiocy. Rather, it is fighting for your basic human rights. Perhaps mister Russel didn’t understand, or acknowledge that fighting for the United States or Great Britain is in fact fighting for his right to say such nonsense and have it passed off as philosophy.

• VonSkippy
  January 1st, 2008 at 11:59 pm

  @badgirl

  How does Atheist figure into being a coward?

  Buy a clue or ask your self induced delusion to send you one.

• Ben Rushing
  January 2nd, 2008 at 1:35 am

  Agree with Jonathan. Fighting for the rights of yours and others from a tyrant for more personal and economic freedom is right and acceptable. More personal freedom means the right to be stupid enough to think that tyranny works, god can tell you to kill people, and that burning the American Flag is cool. With freedom, we can know who the idiots are. Without it those thoughts would be crimes, and without freedom, what would the United States be? How hard it is to defend the actions of idiots, I say let them be that way they can be ignorant of thier own irony.

• Alex
  January 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm

  I can’t find it either, redphone, but the quote is definitely attributed to Russell.

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