The Master .Plan
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November 22, 1999 - Part Two: Destruction (One)
Note: This is part two of a three part series. They're all connected, in a rather "connections" kind of way. Bear with me :-)
Humanity has spent so much of it's time contemplating endings. The atomic bomb is a glorious application of mathematics in every way, and a very final and catastrophic end for most of life on spaceship Earth. Many of the geniuses on the Manahatten project were filled with the thrill of discovery as they cranked the handles on the math of destruction. And when the Trinity device was detonated, a great many discovered the evil good can do. Robert Oppenheimer, with his background in several religious philosophies, put it best in my mind:
And now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds
Man has become very innured to death and destruction. The atom bomb ensured that. We've grown accustomed to living in a world that could see the ending of cities in three shakes1.
What has happened since the end of the Cold War? Not much. The world has shifted from two powers shaking nuclear sabres at each other to a world filled with madmen who hold the keys to nuclear fire. Now we can wipe out civilization with a virus. And instead of two distinct, relatively rational enemies, we have hordes of people who want to kill each other for things that live on only in nationalistic hate, and not in racial memory2.
The country I live in is filled with hate. Now we have people who will shoot and kill each other on the highways for cutting someone off on an on-ramp. There are people who will fire pistols into neighbors houses for target practice. And our justice system is so overwhelmed that nobody seems to get punished anymore for the heinous crimes they commit.
We need to change our society, but how can you change something that is an institution? People in this country have a right to hate each other. The right to say ANYTHING they please. And nobody seems to be able to stop them now. I can only hope that the human race can find something to believe in, something to fight for collectively. Something that can save us all.
Till next time...
1 Three shakes is the "scientific" definition of the total time needed for an atomic bomb to detonate.
2 When I say "Racial memory", I'm speaking about things that apply to all of humanity. Things like our fight to
erradicate smallpox and polio. The parents wish for their children to have it better than they do. These are things that
most rational human beings could agree upon without national sentiment.
