The Shadow Of The Mushroom Cloud

The technological basis of our civilization has reached an impasse.

Ambition and competition for power have, since the 16th century been the driving force for technical progress. They have now lost all meaning.

Should further technical progress be impelled by the will-to-power of one nation over another, the result would be a complete and final wreck of civilisation on this planet—for it no longer has anything to conquer here except itself.

Despite the appalling lesson of Hiroshima, our technology remains rooted in materialistic ambition, and our politics remain dictated by fear. Witness the U.S.A. where farmers are paid for not growing food while the starving millions of Asia are dismissed in inverted commas. Witness the vehement protestations in Western nations of their opposition to Communism while they grant financial aid to Tito. Witness the foreign policy of the whole West, dominated by fear and suspicion of the East. We are equally materialistic . . . and hypocrites also.

Unless the all-pervading technological power of our civilisation is dedicated to spiritual ends, to the cultivation of the human personality and of human brotherhood; unless our lust for material power is renounced: and unless our policies of fear and distrust are abandoned—our own civilisation will itself engulf us.

As a member of the human community,
brought into being from the same nothingness.
created for the same immortal destiny,
as a member of a common brotherhood.
each interdependent on one another's welfare.
all precariously dependent on international peace and co-operation;
I, a single insignificant puny, man as scandalous squandering's of capistanding powerless before the creations of human science
but preserving my freedom to speak;
I protest against all experimentation with weapons of mass destruction, and denounce them tal, labour and skill.
as perversions of scientific invention
as sources of distrust and tensions between nations
as incentives to further amassment as a manifest rejection of man's of weapons of conflict,
reason and God's Providence,
as a threat to man's freedom, prosperity and peace itself.
and as a threat to human existence

—Humns A. & M.