Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), the British mathematician, logician, and philosopher was deeply troubled by the prospect of a nuclear war. In the event that nuclear détente fails and a nuclear holocaust is unleashed on the world, it would mark the end of civilization. He wrote:
You, your families, your friends and your countries are to be exterminated by the common decision of a few brutal but powerful men. To please these men, all the private affections, all the public hopes, all that has been achieved in art, and knowledge and thought and all that might be achieved hereafter is to be wiped out forever. Our ruined lifeless planet will continue for countless ages to circle aimlessly round the sun unredeemed by the joys and loves, the occasional wisdom and the power to create beauty which have given value to human life.
I was reminded of that quote in an episode of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast of 5th April. In it Dan and Annie Jacobsen discuss her book Nuclear War: A Scenario, published in March 2024. Continue reading “Handmaidens of the Apocalypse”
I had not known that Americans call it “World War 2” while the British call it the “Second World War.” That I learned from a public lecture Victor Davis Hanson gave at the Hillsdale College History Department. He is a Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno.
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 