BR TO GILBERT MURRAY, 23 MAR. 1942
BRACERS 52405. ALS. Murray Papers, Bodleian
Edited by W. Bruneau. Proofread by A.G. Bone

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Little Datchet Farm,
Malvern, R.D. 1.
Pennsylvania
March 23, 1942

My dear Gilbert,

I have had a letter of yours on my desk for a shamefully long time, but I have been appallingly busy. You wrote about physics and philosophy. I think the effect of physics is to bolster up Berkeley; but every philosopher has his own view on the subject. You wrote also about post-war reconstruction. I think the irruption of Japan has changed things. Anglo-American benevolent imperialism won’t work. “Asia for the Asiatics” must be conceded. The only question is whether India and China shall be free or under Japan. If free, they will gravitate to Russia, which is Asiatic. There will be no cultural unity, and I doubt whether Russia and USA can agree about any form of international government, or whether, if they nominally do, it will have any reality. I am much less hopeful of the post-war world than before Japan’s successes.

In my survey of the history of culture — alternatively “Sin, from Adam to Hitler” — I have reached Charlemagne. I find the period 400–800 AD very important and too little known. People’s conscious thoughts were silly, but their blind actions founded the institutions under which England still lives — e.g. Oxford and the Archbishops. There were many lonely men in those days — Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore, educated at Athens, trying to teach Greek to Anglo-Saxons; English St. Boniface and Irish St. Virgil disputing, in the wilds of the German forests, as to whether there are other worlds than ours; John the Scot, physically in the 9th century, mentally in the 5th or even 4th. The loss of Roman centralization was ultimately good. Perhaps we need 400 years of anarchy to recover. In a centralized world, too few people feel important.

Very interesting struggles are going on in this country. The Government is compelled to control the capitalists, and they, in turn, are trying to get the trade unions controlled. There is much more fear here than in England of “planned economy”, which is thought socialistic and said to lead to Fascism; and yet the necessities of the war compel it. Everybody in Washington realizes that a great deal of planning will be necessary after the war, but the capitalists hope then to get back to laissez-faire. There may be a good deal of difficulty then. There is a great deal of rather fundamental change going on here, which is worth studying. But I wish I could be at home.

All good wishes —

Yours ever
Bertrand Russell.