Re: Ralph Schoenman

[Sam Pawlett <gusm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Farmelant wrote:

> Ralph Schoenman was greately disliked by many of Bertrand Russell's
> old friends, who in reaction began to spread rumors about Russell's
> alleged senility.

Bryan Magee in his autobiography alleges that Schoenman actually cut off
many of Russell's friends from him. You had to go through Schoenman to
speak to Bertie. Magee was never able to even speak to Russell after
Schoenman became his secretary. Magee wondered what attracted Russell to
Schoenman, since S was not much interested in philosophy and wasn''t a very
good intellectual.  Magee concludes that either R was senile or S was a CIA
agent trying to isolate Russell from the intellectual establishment and
ruin Bertie's reputation by getting him to adopt far left stances. But who
knows? Maybe it was the other way around: Russell was serious about
politics and political activism and didn't want 'third way' accolytes like
Magee ruining his influence on the New Left. Whatever their merits,
Russells writings of the time are not the product of a senile mind.
Whatever Schoenman was, the notion that he was a CIA agent is preposterous.
He would have been 'outed' long ago. I see Ray Monk in the final
installment of his Russell biography only mentions Schoenman in passing and
takes Russell's politics of the time at face value. I really think
Russell's friends saw him as senile because only a crazy person could hold
anti-imperialist views.

Sam Pawlett


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