Bertrand Russell on who not to speak to

Fascists, for example

One of the major philosophers of the twentieth century, whose work affected several different fields, from logic to analytic philosophy to mathematics to ethics, Bertrand Russell was also a popular commentator on political and cultural matters, a public intellectual, as we say now. The letter appears in Ronald William Clark’s The Life of Bertrand Russell.

Sir Oswald Mosley, a hereditary baronet from an old English family, left the Labour Party to form the British Union of Fascists in 1932. The party was banned and he was imprisoned in 1940 and he left England in 1951. P. G. Wodehouse parodied him in the character of Sir Roderick Spode. In 1962, Mosley wrote Russell several letters, apparently giving his views of things. Russell replied:

Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism.

I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.

I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement.

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