MANS MOST DANGEROUS MYTH The Fallacy of Race By M. F. ASHLEY
MONTAGU with a foreword by ALDOUS HUXLEY SECOND EDITION REVISED AND
ENLARGED COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK FIRST EDITION 1942
SECOND EDITION 1945 First printing 1945 Second printing 1946 Third
printing COPYRIGHT 1945, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK
PUBLISHED IN C. RFAT BRITAIN AND INDIA BY GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE,
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON AND BOMBAY MANUFACTURED IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA To BERN DIBNER Ethnic facts, though they
constitute the main problem in the early stages of his tory,
gradually lose momentum in pro portion to the progress of
civilization. ERNEST RENAN On the reality or unreality of this prin
ciple, which dominates at the present hour the secret or avowed
aspirations of the peoples, depends the whole of their future.
Peace among peoples and the crown of such a peace that is, the vast
solidarity of mankind, the dream of the future can in any case only
tri umph when founded on the conviction of the organic and mental
equality of peoples and races. JEAN FINOT FOREWORD BY ALDOUS HUXLEY
DR. ASHLEY MONTAGUS book possesses two great merits arely found in
current discussions ot human problems. Where most writers
over-simplify, he insists on the principle of multiple and
interlocking causation. And where most assume that facts will speak
for themselves, he makes it clear that facts are mere
ventriloquists dummies, and can be made to justify any course of
action that appeals to the socially conditioned passions of the
individuals concerned. These two truths are sufficiently obvious
but they are seldom recognized, for the good reason that they are
very depressing. To recognize the first truth is torecognize the
fact that there are no panaceas and that therefore most of the
golden promises made by political reformers and revolution aries
are illusory. And to recognize the truth that facts do not speak
for themselves, but only as mans socially con ditioned passions
dictate, is to recognize that our current educational processes can
do very little to ameliorate the state of the world. In the
language of traditional theology so much more realistic, in many
respects, than the liberal philosophies which replaced it, most
ignorance is voluntary and depends upon acts of the conscious or
subconscious will. Thus, the fallacies underlying the propaganda of
racial hatred are not recognized because, as Dr. Montagu points
out, most people have a desire to act aggressively, and the members
of other ethnic groups are convenient victims, whom one may attack
with a good conscience. This desire to act aggressively has its
origins in the largely unavoidable frustrations imposed upon the
individual by the processes of early education and later
adjustments to the social environment. Dr. Montagu might have added
that aggressiveness pays a higher dividend in emotional
satisfaction than does coopera viii FOREWORD tion. Cooperation may
produce a mild emotional glow but the indulgence of aggressivness
can be the equivalent of a drinking bout or sexual orgy. In our
industrial societies, the goodness of life is measured in terms of
the number and intensity of the excitements experienced. Popular
philoso phy is moulded by, and finds expression in, the advertising
pages of popular magazines. Significantly enough, the word that
occurs more frequently in those pages than any other is thrill.
Like sex andalcohol, aggressiveness can give enormous thrills.
Under existing social conditions, it is there fore easy to
represent aggressiveness as good. Concerning the remedies for the
social diseases he has so penetratingly diagnosed, Dr. Montagu says
very little, except that they will have to consist in some process
of education. But what process It is to be hoped that he will
answer this question at length in another work. PREFACE TO THE
FIRST EDITION IN OUR TIME the problem of race has assumed an
alarmingly exaggerated importance...
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