"Albert Einstein. The world as I see it (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

the last hundred years could make life happy and care-free if organization
had been able to keep pace with technical progress. As it is, these hard-won
achievements in the hands of our generation are like a razor in the hands of
a child of three. The possession of marvellous means of production has
brought care and hunger instead of freedom.

The results of technical progress are most baleful where they furnish
means for the destruction of human life and the hard-won fruits of toil, as
we of the older generation experienced to our horror in the Great War. More
dreadful even than the destruction, in my opinion, is the humiliating
slavery into which war plunges the individual. Is it not a terrible thing to
be forced by the community to do things which every individual regards as
abominable crimes? Only a few had the moral greatness to resist; them I
regard as the real heroes of the Great War.

There is one ray of hope. I believe that the responsible leaders of the
nations do, in the main, honestly desire to abolish war. The resistance to
this essential step forward comes from those unfortunate national traditions
which are handed on like a hereditary disease from generation to generation
through the workings of the educational system. The principal vehicle of
this tradition is military training and its glorification, and, equally,
that portion of the Press which is controlled by heavy industry and the
soldiers. Without disarmament there can be no lasting peace. Conversely, the
continuation of military preparations on the present scale will inevitably
lead to new catastrophes.

That is why the Disarmament Conference of 1932 will decide the fate of
this generation and the next. When one thinks how pitiable, taken as a
whole, have been the results of former conferences, it becomes clear that it
is the duty of all intelligent and responsible people to exert their full
powers to remind public opinion again and again of the importance of the
1932 Conference. Only if the statesmen have behind them the will to peace of
a decisive majority in their own countries can they attain their great end,
and for the formation of this public opinion each one of us is responsible
in every word and deed.

The doom of the Conference would be sealed if the delegates came to it
with ready-made instructions, the carrying out of which would soon become a
matter of prestige. This seems to be generally realized. For meetings
between the statesmen of two nations at a time, which have become very
frequent of late, have been used to prepare the ground for the Conference by
conversations about the disarmament problem. This seems to me a very happy
device, for two men or groups of men can usually discuss things together
most reasonably, honestly, and dispassionately when there is no third person
present in front of whom they think they must be careful what they say. Only
if exhaustive preparations of this kind are made for the Conference, if
surprises are thereby ruled out, and an atmosphere of confidence is created
by genuine good will, can we hope for a happy issue.

In these great matters success is not a matter of cleverness, still