A visit to archives launches
the path for future. A similar excavation of the bygones and their significance
for the future descendants forces us to inspect contemporary requirements.
One of the noted philosopher
and mathematician Bertrand Russell had given an interview to BBC program Face to Face on April 1959.
The interviewer, Freeman, at
the end, requests Russell to offer message to future descendants. The message is
reproduced here which is very much valid today:
I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one
moral:
The intellectual thing I should want to say to them is this:
When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself
only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never
let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe or by what you
think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed, but look only
and solely at what are the facts. That is the intellectual thing that I should
wish to say.
The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple.
I should say: Love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting
more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other.
We have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we
don’t like. We can only live together in that way, and if we are to live
together and not die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of
tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this
planet.
The
intellectual thing is applicable in all aspect of work where facts are missed
and our perspectives are added to the work.
And the crux of
moral thing “Love is wise, Hatred is foolish” is very much applicable today as
we have become less tolerant as members of the society.
Once, John F
Kennedy spoke about French Marshal Lyautey:
Bury
hatred and plant love.
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