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Bertrand Russell, the wonderful British mathematician, philosopher and stylist (1872-1970), was the leading public intellectual of his century-long life. As such he was continuously asked to write on every single subject imaginable and, in Russell’s hands, each and every subject only he could re-imagine. From March 1933 to April 1935, he was a columnist for the Hearst newspaper chain. The pieces show the quick virtuosity and playfulness of Russell’s mind, whatever the subject. This particular column was published on March 26, 1934. It may possibly be dated in a couple of regards: the reference to Hitler, in power barely a year at the time but whose madness Russell fully detected, is limited to some thing much more esoteric than maniacal. And the habit of nations to either castrate or render infertile persons deemed “undesirable†or, in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ infamously crude 1927 Supreme Court opinion, “imbeciles,†has passed.  But like so significantly of Russell’s writing, the piece still speaks beyond its time, particularly to our time: the last paragraph is as contemporary as John Boehner’s tan.
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