The Impact of Science on Society [Paperback]

Bertrand Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1985

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (January 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041510906X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415109062
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #594,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970). Philosopher, mathematician, educational and sexual reformer, pacifist, prolific letter writer, author and columnist, Bertrand Russell was one of the most influential and widely known intellectual figures of the twentieth century. In 1950 he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1950 for his extensive contributions to world literature and for his "rationality and humanity, as a fearless champion of free speech and free thought in the West."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly ahead of its time, a Crystal Ball of the Future, December 30, 2007

By 

Pork Chop (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Impact of Science on Society (Paperback)

The Impact of Science on Society, by Sir Bertrand Russell - a Nobel

Prize in Literature, and son of Viscount Amberley, and grandson of

the Duke of Bedford, who was Prime Minister for Queen Victoria - is

a work astonishingly ahead of its time, for its 1952 publishing

date. The most important is the so-called Lloyd Roberts Lecture,

given at the Royal Society of Medicine, London, on Nov 29, 1949,

included as the last chapter. overall book.

This work should be required reading in education programs

world-wide, as it crystalizes from a philosophical and rational

point of view, world events from the past several hundred years, in

view of better understanding today's world, and what is to follow

suit next.

Who better than Russell, demonstrating a very advanced ability in

mental gymnastics, digesting entire libraries of literature in that

process and laying out his analysis of the World, and Man's place in

it, and the Future, in 140 pages? This is done entertainingly,

fluidly for readers, with a personal touch.

This work should be purchased and studied by all, because of the

conclusions adopted by the elite of the world, of which the author

and his audience were members.

Everyone should understand that there is an urgency among the elite

to create a One-World government, for various reasons. First, this

is needed to contain nationalist and imperialist urges in various

regions of the world by having a One-World Military.

Secondly, the single government is required to curtail population

growth, in face of limited agricultural production and resources.

The author warns that if the West cannot achieve this in India,

China, Russia, the free world will be overrun militarily,

economically by those populations in the UK, USA and Europe from an

over-populated Asia. I should note that Mao Tse Tung created a

famine, in China, resulting in as many as 38 million (yes, 38!)

casualties from starvation, in the 20 years following the

publication of this book.

Thirdly, raw materials (oil, copper, tin, uranium, etc.) will need

to be rationed and controlled by a One-World government, as they are

finite in quantity. In the past 5 years, oil has risen in multiples

to over $100 per barrel, copper and resources have risen and

mega-acquisitions from Asian and Russian government owned companies

of Canadian and US producers, commonplace.

Fourth, with Darwin on his side, and Malthus, Russell clarifies that

the One World Government, will use scientific methods to cut down

the population, to be carried out explicitly or behind the scenes,

(if birth control is rejected for religious reasons), such as new

twists on the Black Plague (Avian Flu, perhaps?), or contrived world

conflicts r intentional waves of starvation on a global scale,

(pp.129). Unchecked, population numbers destablize a science-based,

prosperous and every-increasing good quality of life. Conversely,

hungry citizens can cause recessions by only buying scarce and

expensive food items, withholding consumption of other items from

their discretionary income, pulling down the economy.

Next, Russell warns against a USA that is export-only based, since

it impoverishes the World. We've seen, accordingly, that the USA has

shown astonishingly high import/export account deficits for the past

30 years, and the manufacturing sector is practically gone

domestically, as the majority of products consumed in USA are now

imported, distributing the wealth globally, as Russell recommends.

As well, taming of natural urges and self-determination is necessary

among school children on a massive scale (Ritalin ?), and violent

nationalist propaganda banned in all schools. Russel also opposes

fanatical creeds being shown to citizens (the Middle East ?)

Russel underlines that either citizens submit to international

authority (so-called Reason) or they will perish and die (pp.96.)

As well, Russell believes that 95% of males and 70% of females are

liekly to be sterilized, so that the elite can use "scientific

breeding" (pp.66) mainly among the totalitarian governments who will

misuse a science for their own purposes, mainly imperialistic.

With non-elected governments, Russell suggests that scentific

societies will impose a special diet and injections into the body of

babies and children under 10 to shape their characters into the

desired citizens that are needed. Through special preparing,

rewarding, and manipulating psychological makeups of humans (through

mental conditioning in schools) critiques of authority, or of those

in power will be impossible, as will be non-desirable thoughts and

behaviors.

In sum, the author must be congratulated for holding back little if

nothing at all to readers, and for giving them his sincere personal

conclusions with a litany of explanations on how those were arrived

at.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UNDER THE THUMB OF THE ONE WORLD GUV ALL RIGHT, May 13, 2010

By 

G. Charles Steiner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Impact of Science on Society (Hardcover)

Bertrand Russell's book is a riveting, must-read. It is a very short book that can be read in two sittings, consisting of only three chapters based on three lectures given at Columbia University back in 1950. The descriptive and elucidatory language used in these pages for each chapter is stunningly clear, well-paced, and beautiful, and because the esthetic value of the writing is so high and palpable, it comes as all the more shocking for the unsuspecting reader to learn that the author is no friend of the common man, no friend of liberty, no proponent of individualism (he declares in Chapter Two that the "sturdy yeoman," honest and brave, fighting against the "urban adventurers" who want to rip him off, is a myth) while he is wholeheartedly invested in the rise of a one world order, one world government, and a scientific dictatorship run by "the governing class."

The first chapter is entitled "Science and Tradition." Here, Russell covers the territory of science versus superstition and religion traditions, delineating clearly that science has definitely outbested the latter in observation, in contradistinction to (mere and religious) authority. Science has also outbested religious tradition or superstition in regard to setting forth the autonomy of the real world and having dethroned any sense of "purpose" in the world other than that which goes by the name "efficacious cause." These ideas can be found in any learned author's discussion of modernity and science and are not new. However, Russell wants to add: "[T]herefore admit that men are not all congenitally equal and that evolution proceeds by selecting favorable variations," mentioning meanwhile that the very idea that men are not equal in congenital endowment "becomes dangerous when some group is singled out as superior or as inferior." Some group? Which group? Bertrand Russell will let you know, but then he won't admit the danger any more. Finally, Russell blows a shivering hint that war and science are blighted or fated incestuous twins.

Chapter or Lecture Two is entitled "Effects of Scientific Technique." This is the section that contains the most striking and the most incendiary statements I've yet come across. Reading this section was for me what I imagine reading "Mein Kempf" must have been in the 1930s for readers who didn't know how shocking Hitler's assertions could be when he was alive. If all one has time for is time for one chapter, this is the chapter to read.

Russell starts out, almost like a novelist, laying out the destructive aspects of science. He admits the Industrial Revolution didn't work out very well for "the average happiness" of people both in England and in America, stating the quality of life was "lower than it had been a hundred years earlier." (Curiously, he contradicts himself later stating that only with the rise of industrialism would a peasant not go hungry and not until the rise of industrialism would most of his children not die. How is this state of affairs better than the industrialism that brought "unspeakable misery"?) To further the reader's awareness of the destructive aspects of science, Russell also mentions how agent provocateurs were used, in England at least, to get wage earners denounced and hanged. Here Russell is hinting at the science of persuasion and the technique of getting people to "cooperate." The cotton gin intensified slavery and its cruelty in the United States. The telegraph did much, Russell asserts, to eliminate jobs and increase central control such that, over time, fewer and few men had more and more executive power in governments than was the case formerly. Power stations and airplanes both promoted the growth of government. All of these facts lead Russell to one conclusion: "There will be now no technical difficulty about a single-world empire. Since war is likely to become more destructive of human life [through science and increase in the power of the few] . . . unification under a single government is probably necessary. . . ."

Russell comes right out and states: "We now know that limelight and a brass band do more to persuade people than can be done by the most elegant train of syllogisms. . . . This subject [persuasion] will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship." He goes even further: "Although this science of mass psychology will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions are generated." He writes that he admits he knows that this increase of organization with a ruling class at the top can spawn a tyranny by officials, can establish a lawless police force, and will necessarily curb your freedom, but liberty, both national and individual, will have to be "effectively restrained" -- or else mankind may not survive -- and a means must be found to make men and nations submit to the rule of law.

On the bright side, at least for this middle chapter, the one positive note science brings to the table for mankind is that science makes (certain) men richer.

The third and last chapter is called "Effects of Scientific Technique," and here Russell mentions other positive aspects of science on mankind, like medicine, nutrition and education. However, he doesn't define education well and medicine and nutrition are discussed to make the reader feel warm and fuzzy about mankind's progress through time using science. However, anyone knows that what vaccines were in the Fifties are a hell of a lot different today and what passed for food back in the Fifties no longer resembles today the modern dining table offerings. Russell even goes so far as to assert that "Science can abolish poverty and excessive hours of labor." Has anyone seen science do this? We do know, however, as Russell admits, that agriculture introduced slavery, human sacrifice and large wars into the individual's way of life and raised the standard of living only for a "tiny governing minority."

So, what's the point? The point is "Everything turns on politics" and all aspects of society, including agriculture, "are in the power of vast financial interests that are concerned in manipulating political issues." Thus, "Matters should be arranged so that large groups seldom think it is in their interest to strike." Only the governing aristocracy shall have economic advantage and there must be a world government with a "monopoly of all serious weapons of war [created by science], for nothing else will make peace secure."

To further his warm and fuzzy approach about the coming scientific dictatorship. Russell adds that he loves humanity and it his actual love for humanity that he advocates this scientific dictatorship. This aristocratic, self-interested atheist then actually intones "love, Christian love, or compassion" as a means toward happiness, adding that nationalism or its propaganda will be outlawed in the future in all forms and school children will be "taught" [propagandized] to not "hate and despise foreign nations," although if nationalism is a verboten construction, I don't know how the word "nation" could even arise in that classroom of the future.

This book was the most heinous reading material I've encountered yet on the subject of the New World Order yet it is so prescient about the global governance now occurring in the early 21st century that, even though what's being presented is as horrific as watching Hitler himself eliminate whole groups or populations, you can't avert your eyes. The unpleasant facts are right here, right in front of you -- coming at you all the way from 1951 and 1952 -- and revealed in elegant prose.

23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Diseased minds of the power elite, February 26, 2008

By 

Alexander Slessor (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Impact of Science on Society (Paperback)

I give this book 5 stars because it is a nicely rappped package of evidence that should be shown to anyone who doubts what is going on. It is essentially a blueprint for the enslavement of free thinking humanity and a perfect road map for global genocide. Russell is giving us a small look into the diseased mind of the people who have gotten control of the world power apparatus. So if you think this scum bag is smart because he won a nobel peace prize thats good just keep drinking your flouride, worship the government and act cool, or you can join them and help kill your fellow man in order to "save the earth" what u don't want to save the earth awww come on you only have to keep the population below 500 million come on just kill everyone that sounds like fun yea. Give me Liberty or give me Death