Bertrand Russell Quotes

Bertrand Russell Quotes 366
There is a wholly fallacious theory advanced by some earnest moralists to the effect that it is possible to resist desire in the interests of duty and moral principle. I say this is fallacious, not because no man ever acts from a sense of duty, but because duty has no hold on him unless he desires to be dutiful. If you wish to know what men will do, you must know not only, or principally, their material circumstances, but rather the whole system of their desires with their relative strengths.
Source： Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter 2: Politically important desires, n.2
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It has become clear (through the publication of photographic evidence) that then Prime Minister Abe held discussions with executives of the former Unification Church and its affiliated organisations in the presidential reception room at LDP headquarters and requested their cooperation in getting Mr Tsuneo Kitamura (former Sankei Shimbun political director) elected (House of Councillors proportional district).
　Unlike in the general electoral districts, in the proportional districts, as long as you are higher on the candidate list, you have a much better chance of being elected. However, deliberately ‘stacking the vote’ to get someone elected who would not normally have been elected is an act of subversion of democracy. 　And so, what needs to be clearly recognised is that, whatever Mr Abe's moral arguments, ‘a sense of duty will not affect him if he does not wish to fulfil his duty’.
　Nevertheless, Mr Abe's collusion with the former Unification Church is a serious matter, but although commercial broadcasters sometimes cover it, NHK rarely reports on it. Does it mean that‘if one does not wish to fulfil one's duty, a sense of duty will not influence the public or the NHK Press Department's Political Department’?
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