When towards the end of his life the philosopher Bertrand Russell was asked what he thought the most important axioms were he replied:

“I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral. The intellectual thing I should want to say is this: When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed. But look only, and solely, at what are the facts. That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say. The moral thing I should wish to say…I should say love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more closely and closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.”

It would certainly be lovely to be able to tolerate other people’s views without question even if one believed that the facts they were based on were largely fanciful. After all, that other great philosopher Voltaire is said to have uttered:

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

We are about to end this year with a double whammy, at least as far as the UK is concerned. The first is the unending saga of Brexit. I voted to remain as I felt the devil one knows was better. Certainly the EU is full of imperfections but it still adheres to the ideals of its original founders and has preserved us from the worst forms of worker exploitation and, above, from the threat of an endemic state of war which has tortured the European continent since the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet I continue to receive these messages from persons I not only tolerate but still respect:

“I believe that the EU which is a corrupted organisation and involved in the most dishonest financial and political crimes will be dismantled, once lots of truths will be coming out in the near future.

I do believe it from the bottom of my heart. What we have been living for the past nine months is the most important time in history in a long time. It is a time of awakening to the false truths and that we have been fed for a very long time. It is not political. But I would say biblical. 

It is literally the third world war. It is a fight between The Dark and the Light. And the Light will win.”

The other thing I find hard to take is the conspiracy theories of those who believe that Covid-19 is a tool of a carefully engineered totalitarian scheme to reduce us to obedient servants of an oppressive world government. Like this other message I received:

“Listen to the true scientists – Nobel Prize medical scientists. People that have actually been involved in making them for military purpose like Montanari and Gatti.

There are two kind of science. One is the corrupted science that has been giving us all lies up to now and that has the monopoly with giant pharmaceutical companies. The other is an independent science that has been squashed and silenced by the ones in power.”

Another message on this same theme comes from someone I used to play chess with before covid concerns entered into the equation. I certainly could not accuse good chess players of lacking logic: 

The problem is that the quotations I have printed above are all from people I have considered friends and in some cases worked alongside in artistic projects. Have they been brainwashed rather like the way Winston was by the end of Orwell’s ‘1984’? Or is it I who is the brainwashed victim?

Does ‘doublethink’ really exist? As Winston, in ‘1984’, mused in front of the telescreen while doing his morning exercises as instructed.

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic”

Now what am I supposed to do? Refuse to talk about religion and politics and stick to safe subjects like what will the weather be like tomorrow or what is the best way to cook lasagne?

Of course, we are all entitled to our opinions. That surely must be the basis of a democratic and balanced civilization. However, there is this significant difference. There is a tone of almost messianic ranting, of belief that unless we believe the messages’ viewpoint we are all doomed to enslavement and eventual extermination.

I look forwards to two world developments once I have tried to forget all these tantalizing thoughts during Christmas: the state of the UK after New Year’s Eve and the covid vaccination programme. Will we still have to continue double-thinking for long after that I wonder?