So, I would break it down like this, human existence is broken into two sections. The time before the atom bomb and the time after we created the atom bomb.
To put it simply, we needed to become a much more serious species after the bomb. There was a technological acceleration at that point.
I listened to some scientists discussing humanity and their unfortunate take was that the coming together that the terror of the bomb had on humanity has, unbelievably, worn off. So, after the United States dropped the bomb on Japan, we had decades of, what was essentially, a coming together of all the people on the planet, that we are all in this together. We achieved a more serious level of understanding...for a while.
My belief is it got us through the 1980s. Then, the decline really kicked in. As a species we kind of began reverting back to the fear and hate bubble. People would openly say "Drop the bomb on them and turn their entire desert to glass!" which was not something that was getting said before that. We thought of the bomb as something that should never be used.
The quote that is the title of this post comes from Robert Oppenheimer, no introduction needed. It explains humanity pretty succinctly in one sentence. We needed to demonstrate the power of the bomb so that all of the world would understand the power we held in our hands. Humanity had to be terrified because we had harnessed that power. They would never understand it until you showed it to them.
It is truly stunning that this country, I'll let Mick and those not living in the US speak for other countries, has been torn apart by such utter trivial nonsense. CRT, woke, pretending elections were stolen, influencing people's sexual orientation, this is all just absolute nonsense that does not exist and is not even real...yet, this is the entire platform of one of our two major political parties. It is their platform only for the division and destruction it causes...not because any of it is actually happening nor a problem. We've devolved in the United States to the point where fairy tales and lies have separated us.
Making us plainly look like a society that has no business having the power of total annihilation at our fingertips.
One thing I don't think Oppenheimer could have seen is that the power of that demonstration in Japan would wear off. That we would sink into such a level of sheer stupidity that we would be represented but utter morons such as Trump, or Margorie Green, or Tommy Tuberville, or any of that sea of ignorance. People that can't wait to separate and divide the people in this country.
Greed and ignorance drive fear and hate. It is easy to rile that up in people and a guy like Trump, that is entirely greed and ignorance, is a fantastic influencer for a certain segment of the population.
I think the bright side, and come on you have to look for the bright side to find the way out, is that it is a small segment of the population that wants this division and destruction. Maybe 30% give or take 5%.
It's still a large number and I know we despair over how to bring these people back into the fold before it is too late...but as Oppenheimer said, they likely need the demonstration to understand the error of their ways.
The scientists I was listening to felt that the only way to bring people together again was they needed another demonstration of the power of science...which really is the power of human beings. They did not mean that we needed another demonstration of the bomb, but another huge and life altering demonstration. We've lost the ability to believe in each other and our power to problem solve.
Surely, if we have done such other amazing things, we can solve the problem of about 30% of our population being ignorant and lost in a web of utterly stupid deceptions.
