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.
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.
Today, the nightmare is no longer a threat. It is a reality. The bomb was made, and it was used.
By Albert Einstein (May 31, 1946)
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.
This is not science fiction. This is physics. And physics does not care about our politics.
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. albert einstein the menace of mass destruction full speech
What I must say to you tonight is simple, and it is terrible:
I propose, therefore, that we work toward a supranational organization — a world government — with the sole authority to possess atomic materials and weapons. Every nation must surrender its sovereignty over the means of mass destruction. This is not a dream. It is a necessity, as necessary as oxygen for a drowning man.
The atom has changed everything, save our mode of thinking. And thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. A single war fought with atomic bombs —
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.
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.
This is a delusion. A fatal delusion.
It is a question for the human soul.
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.