RESULT-ORIENTED ACTION

Practical Wisdom

BERTRAND Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher; at the same time he was a peace activist. At the end of the WWI, he had been imprisoned for six months for participating in antiwar protest. This would not be his last time in prison for his pacifist stances. In 1961, three years after founding the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, he was in jail for one week in connection with antinuclear protests.

This street demonstration by Russell created media furore. He and the protestors were able to supply temporary news for the media, but in terms of the required result, it was totally a non-event. Russell and his colleagues were successful in registering protest, but they were unsuccessful in changing the course of events. There have been countless similar protests and demonstrations throughout the world which have proved largely ineffective.

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Peace requires intellectual change.

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The issue of peace is not a matter of street demonstration. Peace requires change in people’s thinking. Without intellectual change, it is impossible to bring about change in the real situation. There is a dictum adopted by UNESCO: ‘Violence begins from the mind.’ The same is true for the issue of peace. Peace begins from the mind. Anyone who wants to establish peace must adopt the right beginning. The right beginning for this purpose is the human mind, and not the streets.

Then, the object of peace cannot be attained through any kind of short-term planning. It requires long-term planning. Anyone who wants to see a peaceful world must adopt long-term planning. Longterm planning requires patience, and it is a fact that any substantial achievement can be had only through patient planning and not simply through emotional outbursts.