I answer: We must think as citizens of the world, not as citizens of any single nation.
We scientists have delivered the power into your hands. It is the power to destroy yourselves. What you do with it — whether you rise to the level of your own peril — is no longer a question for physics.
I am grateful for this opportunity to speak with you tonight. I speak not as a physicist, but as a human being — a citizen of this world, deeply troubled by the shadow that has fallen upon it.
The atomic bomb has made the old patterns of war obsolete. In the past, nations could fight and lose and survive. The losing army could retreat, surrender, rebuild. But with these new weapons, there will be no rebuilding. There will be no retreat. There will be no surrender, because there will be no one left to surrender. albert einstein the menace of mass destruction full speech
This is not science fiction. This is physics. And physics does not care about our politics.
The men in Washington, in Moscow, in London — they are good men, many of them. But they are prisoners. They think in terms of "us" versus "them." They think in terms of borders, armies, alliances. They think that more bombs will make them safe.
Some will call me a utopian. They said the same of those who worked to abolish slavery, to give women the vote, to end the divine right of kings. Every great advance in human morality was once called impossible. I answer: We must think as citizens of
We have seen what it does. One bomb — one single bomb — erased a city from the earth. Men, women, children, the old and the newborn — turned to ash in a single flash of heat brighter than the sun. Those who did not die instantly wandered the ruins, their skin hanging from their bodies, their eyes melted, their lungs filled with invisible death that would kill them weeks later — slowly, quietly, cruelly.
Thank you. End of speech.
The atom has changed everything, save our mode of thinking. And thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. What you do with it — whether you
Tonight, I do not ask you to agree with every detail of my proposal. I ask only this: Think as if your children’s lives depend on it — because they do. Think as if your species’ survival depends on it — because it does.
You cannot protect yourself against atomic weapons by building more atomic weapons. That is like trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it. The only real protection — the only one — is to ensure that these weapons are never used again. And the only way to ensure that is to abolish war itself.
I do not say this lightly. I know that nations have enemies. I know that there are real conflicts, real grievances, real hatreds. But I say to you: The alternative to world government is world destruction.
A single war fought with atomic bombs — perhaps even a dozen of them — could end the life of every person on this planet. Not just the soldiers. Not just the cities. The entire civilization. The crops. The water. The air itself, poisoned with radioactive dust that would circle the earth for generations.
