 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
The most curious form of this kind of transferred hatred is the habit of looking for scapegoats. In this case it is ourselves that we hate, but as this emotion is uncomfortable, we manage to heap all our own feelings of guilt upon some unfortunate victim. In the Old Testament the victim is a goat. This represents a humanitarian reform, because at an earlier time the victim had been human.
Source: To face danger without hysteria; We must not let our foreign policy be based on unreasoning fear, Bertrand Russell warns.
In: New York Times Magazine, 21 Jan. 1951, pp.7, 42, 44-45.
* Original title: On mass hysteria.
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