 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
What is mistakenly called 'human nature' likes somebody to hate, and does not feel fully alive except when some enemy is being injured. It is this way of feeling that has hitherto set limits to the growth of social cohesion, which is now an imperative necessity if the human race is to continue The real obstacles to world-wide social cohesion are in individual souls. They are the pleasure that we derive from hatred, malice and cruelty. If mankind is to survive, it will be necessary to find a way of living which does not involve indulgence in these pleasures. If such a way of living is to be successful, it must not be merely through self-denial and self-restraint. It must be by changing the sources of happiness and the unconscious impulses which mould our moral phrases.
Source: New Hopes for a Changing World, 1951, chapter 7： the size of social unit.
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