Albert Einstein - The Menace Of Mass Destruction Full [upd] Speech Updated

: The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II but revealing a horrifying new capacity for destruction.

The Historical Context: 1947 and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age : The United States drops atomic bombs on

The menace isn't the bomb. The menace is our refusal to grow up fast enough to match our technology. If we desire to avoid our own destruction,

If we desire to avoid our own destruction, we must radically change our political thinking. We must realize that we can no longer settle international disputes by force. We must take the first steps toward a true world government. A world government alone can guarantee peace, and only a guaranteed peace can save humanity from a catastrophe too terrible to contemplate. A world government alone can guarantee peace, and

We cannot prevent war by preparing for war. The supreme task of our generation is to realize that the absolute sovereignty of individual nations is no longer compatible with human survival. We must choose between global law or total destruction." III. The Path to Global Cooperation

There are, no doubt, in the opposite camps enough people of sound judgment and sense of justice who would be capable and eager to work out together a solution for the factual difficulties. But the efforts of such people are hampered by the fact that it is made impossible for them to come together for informal discussions. I am thinking of persons who are accustomed to the objective approach to a problem and who will not be confused by exaggerated nationalism or other passions. This forced separation of the people of both camps I consider one of the major obstacles to the achievement of an acceptable solution of the burning problem of international security.