Glorifying Peace Instead of War

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Glorifying Peace Instead of War: Challenges and Solutions

Despite the fact that we live in a world of increasing violence in every walk of life, humans still have not lost hope; they talk about peace as they have done since the beginning of time. Some advocate peace by preparing for war; others advocate peace by preparing for peace.

I thought I could do peaceful work inside the United States’ nuclear labs, but I learned I was wrong. I realized that environmental and nuclear non-proliferation work was an illusion, and that purely academic projects are sustained to lure well-intentioned young scientists into weapons development programs. I also realized that if scientists stop developing the instruments of mass destruction, the government will be powerless to continue developing them. So I resigned from the nuclear labs, and chose instead to work for peace – and now I urge others to do the same.

Technological Violence

We cannot deny the fact that the magnitude of death and sorrow from a violent act is proportional to the degree of technological sophistication employed in the act: Wars with spears in the past cannot compare with the electronic, atomic wars of today. In past wars, mostly soldiers would die, but today mostly civilians die. The technology separates and dehumanizes us from the actual act of killing. In the past, a soldier saw the expression on the face of his opponent as he died. Today, however, thousands of people can be vaporized instantly, while others can languish in pain for years, and future generations can be affected. But the person who launched the initial weapon will have seen nothing of this but some data on a computer screen.

Scientists and engineers have always served society for the good, but we can not deny that scientists and engineers have also played the greatest role in violence committed against life, and this is true throughout history. It was science and technology that contributed to the human tragedy of the past two world wars. It is science and technology that has prepared such an unthinkable war machine today, which, if used, will abolish us all. Scientists have penetrated the microcosm and the macrocosm to a great degree, but they have failed to penetrate the self.

As Gandhi said, “Science without humanity is a blunder that leads to violence.”

Making weapons of mass destruction in the name of peace and possessing nuclear weapons is nothing but an act of murder waiting to happen. Humanity still thinks of war as a fight of many people against many people, but our times show that sooner or later it could be one man against the whole world. No nation is better than another. There are no rogue nations and nations of concern here and perfect nations there. There are people here and people there and they are expecting their leaders, who control the instruments of indiscriminate destruction, to renounce their use in favor of permanent, worldwide peace.

Nuclear Weaponeers

Today, more than ever, the scientists and engineers working at the world’s research and manufacturing centers for weapons of mass destruction are being called upon to re-evaluate their positions and beliefs. These laboratories have prepared for war, and still are developing more nuclear weapons of indiscriminate death and suffering to all life. These weapons are so catastrophically potent that the only name appropriate for them should be “satanic weapons”.

Yet, the true natures and roles of these laboratories is well hidden behind the names of the operators: the University of California and Lockheed Martin. The labs also hide their true natures behind an insignificantly small number of non-weapons research programs that are heavily promoted. Almost everyone in these laboratories tries to put such facts in a dark corner of their consciences, as denial is the only way to live comfortably with this knowledge.

I ask the scientists working on them to lift up their eyes from their books and take their hands away from their computers for awhile and look at the big picture – the BIG picture, which most of them have learned to ignore. In this time of crisis, scientists have a responsibility to the human species to help ensure its very survival. 

The fact is these scientists work for a government that increasingly has isolated itself from the rest of the world, through a foreign policy that is despised by many other nations and that is destabilizing the world. It is a policy that aims to accomplish world domination, even if it is necessary to use weapons of mass destruction to achieve this goal. We comfortably judge Hitler and his army of scientists and engineers who brought blood and tragedy to the world, but we feel uncomfortable in judging our own leaders and scientists. Yet a miscalculation today by them would be the end of civilization, and, deep down, we know that.

CONTINUE READING:

Previous articles by Andreas Toupadakis:

• Creating Your Future – Arise Great Warrior, Arise!
• Unifying The Global Peace Movement – Challenges and Solutions
• The Real Face of The Empire
• Science, Secrets and Corporate Slavery
• Crisis in Science: Scientists’ Responsibility for the Survival of the Human Species
• Quitting the Nuclear Labs – a Scientist’s Plea for World Peace
• Civilization Is for Making Peace, Not War
• Wisdom and Compassion Need to Become Action

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