Bertie "Mad Dog' Russell (from AtD)

[Mark Kohut]

Did we know:

WW1 changed him utterly, utterly, sez biographer Ray Monk quoting him.
"he felt like Faust before (1910) then after (1914) he met
Mephistopheles.  Russell said it made him aware that most people have
a profpound unhappiness that led their "instinctual processes" to
emerge in "destructive rages".

Gave up mathematics for freelance journalism on social, political
books and issues.

Had visited China and in a series of articles and a book wrote about
China--[the East--MK] as a civilization Europe could look to learn
from.---
 'The Chinese are gentle, urbane, seeking only justice and freedom.
They have a civilization superior to ours an all that makes for human
happiness...I think they are the only people in the world who quite
genuinely believe that wisdom is more precious than rubies".---
"Can Chinese virtues be preserved? Or must China, in order to survive,
acquire, instead, the vices which make for success, and cause misery
to others only?"

He knew China had to industrialize but asked openly: "Could the
benefits of science, technology and industry be given to a society
without it also importing the aggressive militarism that characterizes
the Western nations?"

He referred to "the Powers [of leading countries] " meaning They in
effect in other articles. Popular articles. Solution: for citizens to
doubt politicians and priests by adopting a skeptical, scientific
outlook.
--"The scientific temper is capable of regenerating mankind and
providing an issue for all our troubles. The results of science, in
the form of mechanism, poison gas and the Yellow Press, bid fair to
lead to the total downfall of our civilization."

For Russell, 'scientific' psychology meant behaviorism, particularly
the work of John B. Watson...by whose principles he tried to raise his
son. Watson showed the successful creation in an eleven month old,
"Little Albert', a fear of a white rat. (to whom he initially reached
out in curiosity) So, among other things, Bertie let the baby cry--all
they wanted was attention---"Never let the child think that a
necessary normal action, such as eating, which ought to be a pleasure,
is something that you desire, and that you want it to do it to please
you. If you do, the child soon perceives that it has acquired a new
source of power, and expects to be coaxed into actions which it ought
to perform spontaneously"..!!

Ray Monk: "in view of what happened to John.....'but, of course, the
links between cause and effect are very difficult to
determine"...."you want cause & effect"? --GR.

"Capitalism, he believed, bred the kind of aggressive rivalry that
made war inevitable." Hence his conversion to Socialism. "As peace
between civilized countries is a necessary precondition of the
survival of civilization, it follows that capitalism and civilization
are incompatible. Given the world dominance of America, it further
follows that a 'complete collapse of civilization' could be averted
only if "the American belief in capitalism can be shaken."

So, today's question for both of you who have read this far is: the
phrase "Mad Dog' is ironically a 'positive' one in AtD, right? Or,
given Know-Nothing-for Sureism, also an ambiguous positive?
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l