New Humanist Update

Sept/Oct edition out this week

The latest edition of New Humanist hits the shops and subscribers' mailboxes this week, and we're very proud of it (as ever). Among the treats you can expect are Sally Feldman's exploration of the semiotics of fur, a fascinating interview with Michael Frayn, a holiday postcard from AC Grayling in the Galapagos, Jenny Joseph on the Orwell trail, reviews of the new Paul Auster and Roddy Doyle books, a brand new poem from Alan Brownjohn, and, of course, much, much more (there's always much, much more, isn't there?). (Subscribe here or why not buy a subscription for a friend so they don't miss it either. Call us on +44 0207 436 1151 and we'll take care of it for you).

Viva el Presidente

The Rationalist Association, the publisher of New Humanist, is delighted to announce Jonathan Miller as its new president. Miller fills the vacancy left by the death of Professor Hermann Bondi, who was a great friend of the rationalist and humanist cause for many years. Accepting the position, Sir Jonathan said: "I am flattered and honoured to accept the role of President of the Rationalist Association. Not believing in religion is very widespread and very longstanding but I think this community gets overlooked. There is a large unrepresented constituency of people for whom religion doesn't enter their heads, or at least they do not employ religious ways of thinking. With the rise of aggressive militant forms of belief, whether it's a crazy form of self-martyring Islam, American evangelicalism or Israelis who believe their land claims are underwritten by God, it seems to me one of the primary functions of this community is to explore religious beliefs and to analyse them with an objective curiosity and a kind of anthropological attitude to what people do." The RA is planning an inaugural lecture to welcome Jonathan Miller. Watch this space for more details.

What to say to racists

So we've all heard about Mel Gibson's unfortunate little anti-Semitic outburst. If you haven't, essentially what happened is that he started shouting about Jews being responsible for all war after being stopped for drink driving. Anyway, some of us can forget about this kind of thing, some can't. Like US comedian and baseball fan Denis Leary, who couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a dig at Gibson during a particularly good spell of play for the Boston Redsox Jewish fielder Kevin Youkilis. See what Leary has to say here (warning, if you're watching this at work, you will find yourself suddenly laughing like an idiot at your workstation. On the other hand, you have to watch it pretty quick, as the broadcaster is rushing about trying to take it off the web)

What Al-Qaeda says to us

The latest video message from al-Qaeda provides us with a reminder of what exactly they want: for their brand of fundamentalism to dominate the world, and for all non-Muslims to convert. Seems reasonable. Watch here

The Hitler-Stalin-Satan-Potter pact

The Vatican's head exorcist (yeah, they do have one) has said that Hitler and Stalin were 'possessed by the devil'. "You can tell by their behaviour and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons," said Father Gabriele Amorth. Father Amorth has previously criticized JK Rowling's Harry Potter as 'satanic', claiming: "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil." Read more here

Book review

Pocket Book of Patriots: Over 100 British Heroes
George Courtald
Routledge
2006

Patriotism has had a bad press in this country in recent years. In many peoples' minds it tends to be almost synonymous with jingoism and militarism. The author clearly doesn't see his title as in any way off-putting, and to an extent neither do I. The author in fact means, "Here is my choice of some people who have shaped the history of these islands over the last 1500 years." Now, whether you would consider William Caxton, or Thomas Gainsborough to be patriots is another matter. I can see how some might consider them to be a personal hero, but that's not the same thing. So calling them patriots is in a sense a small disservice to what makes each of these persons stick in the national memory. Many did indeed act out of a sense of duty to their country - patriots in the modern sense, in other words; Raleigh, Drake and military personnel generally - but an equal number were driven by other forces - Milton, Larkin, Keats etc. The latter would have behaved as they did regardless of nationality, so 'patriot' is something of a misnomer in my view.

If the reader can accept the notion of 'personal hero' rather than national patriot, then what we have here is a rather nice set of potted summaries, CVs if you will, of the lives of about 100 famous Britons, giving the important dates, the derivation of their fame, and a snippet of contextualising historical background. This background information is, in fact, crucial for most non-historians, for although each entry pretty much follows the previous in time, there are clear bunches of people who lived at the same time and who may have been allies or enemies. It helps therefore to know how their lives and influence overlapped. There are two or three pages devoted to each entry, so many are simply lists of dates with a paragraph of background, but if you want to know more, there's always the web.

This is an interesting book to dip into, rather than read from cover to cover. Even adults will find much to inform, admire and wonder at. I think, however that the primary audience should be younger people, perhaps studying history at school level.

Overall, a good idea, well-executed, and if you don't mind the title, very useful for the student of history. For the adult wanting perhaps more background, written in a more discursive manner on an international basis, I would suggest Private Lives by Mark Bryant (Cassell and Co., 2001).

Andrew Rankine