Utopian, Interrupted
I read an article today by Sir Joseph Rotblat, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Peace. The article is a call for ethics in science - an ethical "standard", similar to what we have in medicine with the Hippocratic oath. Rotblat makes the point that we, the modern human race, are experiencing a great disconnect between the advance of pure science - chemistry, biology, etc. - and the advance of social science - economics, politics, etc. This is evidenced by things like our outrageously overblown weapons programs.
Why do we need to continually build new and ever-more deadly weapons of mass destruction when the purpose of these weapons, deterrence, was realized and surpassed decades ago? How many billions of dollars does the USA have to spend on warheads (while telling the rest of the world to cease and desist) to deter the new enemy: terror? How can we wage war on a noun? The solution, as I see it, is simple: we need to lead by example, and we need to focus on the causes of our ills, not the affects.
September 11 happened for one reason: USA foreign policy. It's like daring someone to punch you, then getting pissed when they do. But we have interests in the middle east - all of us understand that. It is not as simple as just getting the hell out. This is where it ties in to the disconnect between social and pure science: we may be technologically advanced; we may be able to send millionaires into space, but we are idiots when it comes to understanding and empathizing with each other.
If we could set aside our hate and prejudice - not because we had to, or were forced to, but because we wanted to, we knew it was right - then the path would become clear. We need to look our aggressors in the eye, and we need to look within ourselves. Almost all the time, our instinct is to assign blame, but this is a totally unnecessary reaction. We need to truly and honestly realize the problem and address the root cause, rather than looking for a scapegoat, a martyr, or some other form of vengeance.
In our attainable future, we can make these words abstracts, we can antiquate the entire concept of war, and we can certainly coexist without murdering each other en masse. "Perfect world" is a phrase that is thrown around so much these days it has become an excuse to stop trying. But isn't that the ultimate goal? Isn't that what we are all striving for? In the end, who we are is simply a combination of two things: how we perceive ourselves, and how we are perceived by others.
Like the gulf in the two worlds of science, this also must be reconciled.
Why do we need to continually build new and ever-more deadly weapons of mass destruction when the purpose of these weapons, deterrence, was realized and surpassed decades ago? How many billions of dollars does the USA have to spend on warheads (while telling the rest of the world to cease and desist) to deter the new enemy: terror? How can we wage war on a noun? The solution, as I see it, is simple: we need to lead by example, and we need to focus on the causes of our ills, not the affects.
September 11 happened for one reason: USA foreign policy. It's like daring someone to punch you, then getting pissed when they do. But we have interests in the middle east - all of us understand that. It is not as simple as just getting the hell out. This is where it ties in to the disconnect between social and pure science: we may be technologically advanced; we may be able to send millionaires into space, but we are idiots when it comes to understanding and empathizing with each other.
If we could set aside our hate and prejudice - not because we had to, or were forced to, but because we wanted to, we knew it was right - then the path would become clear. We need to look our aggressors in the eye, and we need to look within ourselves. Almost all the time, our instinct is to assign blame, but this is a totally unnecessary reaction. We need to truly and honestly realize the problem and address the root cause, rather than looking for a scapegoat, a martyr, or some other form of vengeance.
In our attainable future, we can make these words abstracts, we can antiquate the entire concept of war, and we can certainly coexist without murdering each other en masse. "Perfect world" is a phrase that is thrown around so much these days it has become an excuse to stop trying. But isn't that the ultimate goal? Isn't that what we are all striving for? In the end, who we are is simply a combination of two things: how we perceive ourselves, and how we are perceived by others.
Like the gulf in the two worlds of science, this also must be reconciled.
posted by Smorgasbord at 6:05 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, well said.
When a culture becomes dependent on war as the essence of its existence I have to imagine the symptoms of withdrawal will be analogous to coming off heroin. Do we give the US economy morphine or go for the “cold turkey” approach? Do we then expect the rest of the world to follow suit? My concern is we’ve gone beyond punching someone to crashing their skull with a hammer, then saying “Are you happy now, you should be, here is your democracy and freedom, now go off and live your life”. I look at the images of Falluja and they remind me of Dresden or Hiroshima. We are wading deeper into an abyss that each day erodes possibility of your Utopia. After 9/11 world opinion was in our favor, today it is overwhelmingly anti-US. The chance for change has come and gone, and I fear we have traveled the wrong path, I just hope it isn’t too late to turn around…
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