Fear of the Thinkers by Bertrand Russell,

​

Men fear thought more than anything else in the world; more than ruin, even more than death.
Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible. Thought is ruthless with privileges, established institutions, and comfortable customs; thought obeys no law, completely indifferent to authorities, unaware of the whole store of well-proven wisdom.

Thought fearlessly peers straight into the center of hell. He sees man as a poor point, surrounded by an unimaginable deep silence; however, he presents himself proud, immovable as if he were the master of the universe. Thought is free, fast and sensational, it is the light of the world and the greatest glory of the human being.  

But if thought were the possession of the many, and not the privilege of the few, we have to deal with fear. Well, it is fear that stops the human being, fear that their beloved beliefs are mere disappointments, fear that their institutions by which they live will be harmful and fear even of themselves for the supposed ill-deserved respect and being unworthy.

 
Will the worker think freely about the property?

So what will become of us rich people?

Will young men and women think freely about sex?

So what will happen to morale?

Will the soldiers think freely about the war?

So what will happen to military discipline?

Death to thought!

Let's go back to the obscurantism of prejudices, lest it be that I endangered the property,

morality and war!

At all costs, disaster must be avoided. It is better not to have free thinkers, it is better for men to be stupid, lazy and tyrannical. Surely they would never think like us, their thoughts would be free.

Thus the enemies of thought argue from the bottom of their unconscious souls. And so they act in their churches, in schools and in their universities. Fear inspires terror to life, no institution can prosper like this. The main creative force derives from "hope" and not from fear.

  It is the effort to preserve what is good and everything that has made man great. It does not emanate from the fight against supposed "bad thoughts".

It is rare for schools to do well because "modern education" is not inspired by any kind of hope. The minds of the people who control the content of youth seek to preserve and perpetuate the past instead of sowing hope to create the future. Education should seek activities aimed at highlighting skills for creativity and should not bet on imposing dead data.

We must be inspired, stop longing for the beauties of the Greek or Renaissance past, we must visualize the future, the triumphs to be achieved. Recognize our work as custodians in space and time and remove man chained to the gloomy past, forge the future with hope and joy, broadening horizons full of life through learning. 

Translated text of page 77  from the Book entitled "Why men fight; a method of abolishing the international duel" published in 1917