Bertrand Russell’s Delicious Response To British Fascist Oswald Mosley

In the strange interwar theatre of British politics, few figures stood further apart in temperament and ideology than Bertrand Russell and Oswald Mosley. One was a Nobel Prize-winning philosopher, a pacifist, and a logician who tried to make sense of the world through reason and principle. The other, a charismatic aristocrat turned fascist, rallied blackshirts in London streets and looked to Mussolini for inspiration. So when the two briefly crossed pens, the exchange, if you can call it that, was as short as it was unforgettable.

In 1962, decades after Mosley’s heyday as Britain’s most notorious fascist, he was still trying to claw his way back into political relevance. As part of a public relations campaign, he sent out letters to prominent figures of British life, asking for support or at least dialogue. One of those recipients was Bertrand Russell, by then in his nineties and a national treasure. Perhaps Mosley assumed that the passage of time had mellowed the philosopher’s views. He was wrong.

Russell’s reply is now legendary for its brevity and precision

Dear Sir Oswald,

Thank you for your letter 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 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,

Bertrand Russell

This must be the nicest "Fuck off" that's every been written.

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