“The majority of mankind have lived under a load of poverty and suffering and cruelty, and have felt themselves impotent under the sway of hostile or coldly impersonal powers”.
I believe this quote captures the main idea of fourth lecture in Russell’s book, Authority and the Individual. The lecture focuses on the disconnect between people and higher authorities and the evil that is fostered as a result. Compared to lecture two from the book which dealt which social cohesion and government, describes war as a form of unity among people, both lectures focus on outside pressures that are responsible for grouping people together. Russell brings up this point in lecture four as well when making note of the strength of nationalism during times of war. Anytime there is fear of outside invaders, or evil bosses, people all suffering similarly naturally take comfort with another. Emotions such as fear or discomfort are strong motivations for social cohesion and taking action.
While I’m not sure if that was the overarching main theme of Russells lecture, it was most definitely the precursor to one of the points he made, which are the different conditions of human solidarity. I agree wholly with the concepts that war and nationalistic values have the tendency to improve the spirits of a nation, if they are the victors. Conversely if a nation were to lose a war and find themselves in a state of shambles, then it is also easy to unite them behind a nonexistent common enemy.
I totally agree with you. The quote that you used explains exactly what you were talking about “disconnect between people and higher authorities and the evil”. I totally agree that emotions and fears cause humans discomfort and “strong cohesion” a in repose to that we take action. Although I cant help but notice that may be this trend is very strong in most of his lectures in the book and not just this particular lecture.
Gaurav Gupta