April 11
GUEST: Dr. Larry Wittner, early
civil rights and anti-apartheid activist, author of several
books, and Professor of History emeritus at SUNY Albany, talks
about nuclear winter and Einstein's warnings about
nationalism.
Einstein's
Postwar campaign to save the world
I woke up last night to a huge explosion. When I rushed to the window, I saw a black cloud rising several miles away. Immediately, I tried to judge whether the explosion was in Kingston, a small city across the Hudson River. Was it the beginning of a nuclear war? I stood there for a while, thinking about my grandchildren. Would there be anyone left?
I don't know how many people in the United States have this nuclear Armageddon stored somewhere in their psyche. I think millions do, especially when the warmongers in our government are in the ascendancy. We don't really have a peace movement to balance the war parties. Little is said about our aggressive behavior towards China and Russia. In fact, Russia talks openly about a nuclear war if their national sovereignty is threatened. The US military support of Ukraine certainly fits that bill.
In a way, nuclear war is like climate change. Most of us know that there is a good chance our life on earth will end in one of these two ways. As God told Noah: "It won't be water, be fire next time." Will it be the slow but irreversible heating of our planet, or will it be a flash of light seen from my bedroom window?
The wonder of it all is that no one in our political class seems to care. Maybe capitalism makes people live their lives as if there was no tomorrow. Get rich, buy everything you can, and hope the fire comes after you have gone. Perhaps this world view is the fatal flaw of human beings. We haven't evolved fast enough to compensate for our burgeoning technology. As Pete Seeger told us: "We will love or we will perish."
