How to confront a FASCIST: Bertrand Russell’s forceful yet dignified letter of refusal to debate a British fascist, a response to Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley (one of the most despised Britons in 1000 years).
Dear Sir Oswald,
Thank you for your letters and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism.
I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct and, in the deepest ways, opposed that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.
I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement.
Yours sincerely,
Image: Bertrand Russell’s return letter to Oswald Mosley. It was finally written after years of provoking correspondences for the 89-year-old Russell to engage in public “talks” in which Mosley believed he could persuade the politically liberal and pacifist philosopher of the so-called “merits” of fascism.
* In 2006, BBC History Magazine selected Mosley as one of the worst and most hated Britons in 1000 years.
