Albert Einstein's 'Address to the Students' Disarmament Meeting' - Read By William Simpson

Text: "Preceding generations have presented us with a highly developed science and technology, a most valuable gift which carries with it possibilities of making our life free and beautiful to an extent such as no previous generation has enjoyed. But this gift also brings with it dangers to our existence as great as any that have ever threatened it.

The destiny of civilized humanity depends more than ever on the moral forces it is capable of generating. Hence the task that confronts our age is certainly no easier than the tasks our immediate predecessors successfully performed.

The necessary supply of food and goods can be produced in far fewer hours than formerly. Moreover, the problems of distribution of labor and of manufactured goods has become far more difficult. We feel that the free play of economic forces, the unregulated and unrestrained pursuit of wealth by the individual, no longer leads automatically to a tolerable solution of these problems. Production, labor, and distribution need to be organized on a definite plan, in order to prevent the elimination of valuable productive energies and the impoverishment and demoralization of large sections of the population.

If unrestricted sacred egoism leads to dire consequences in economic life, it is still worse as a guide in international relations. The development of mechanical methods of warfare is such that human life will become intolerable if people do not discover before long a way of preventing war. The importance of this object is only equaled by the inadequacy of the attempts hitherto made to attain it.

People seek to minimize the danger by limitation of armaments and restrictive rules for the conduct of war. But war is not a parlor game in which the players obediently stick to the rules. Where life and death are at stake, rules and obligations go by the board. Only the absolute repudiation of all war can be of any use here. The creation of an international court of arbitration is not enough. There must be treaties guaranteeing that the decisions of this court shall be made effective by all the nations acting in concert. Without such a guarantee, the nations will never have the courage to disarm seriously.

Suppose, for example, that the American, English, German, and French governments insisted that the Japanese government put an immediate stop to their warlike operations in China, under pain of a complete economic boycott. Do you suppose that any Japanese government would be found ready to take the responsibility of plunging its country into the perilous adventure of defying this order? Then why is it not done? Why must every individual and every nation tremble for their existence? Because each seeks his own wretched momentary advantage and refuses to subordinate it to the welfare and prosperity of the community.

That is why I began by telling you that the fate of the human race was more than ever dependent on its moral strength today. The way to a joyful and happy existence is everywhere through renunciation and self-limitation.

Where can the strength for such a process come from? Only from those who have had the chance in their early years to fortify their minds and broaden their outlook through study. Thus we of the older generation look to you and hope that you will strive with all your might and achieve what was denied to us."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Albert Einstein
• william simpson
• unrestricted sacred egoism
• Peace
• Pacifism
• Pacifist
• Disarm