“Throughout human history, when confronted with what was deemed a deadly enemy, the fixed human response has been to gather more rocks, muskets, cannons, and now nuclear bombs.”

—  Bernard Lown

A Prescription for Hope (1985)
Context: Throughout human history, when confronted with what was deemed a deadly enemy, the fixed human response has been to gather more rocks, muskets, cannons, and now nuclear bombs. While nuclear weapons have no military utility — indeed they are not weapons but instruments of genocide-this essential truth is obscured by the notion of an "evil enemy". The "myth of the other", the stereotyping and demonizing of human beings beyond recognition, is still pervasive and now exacts inordinate economic, psychologic, and moral costs. The British physicist P. M. S. Blackett anticipated this state of paranoia: "Once a nation bases its security on an absolute weapon, such as the atom bomb, it becomes psychologically necessary to believe in an absolute enemy". The imagined enemy is eventually banished from the human family and reduced to an inanimate object whose annihilation loses all moral dimension.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Throughout human history, when confronted with what was deemed a deadly enemy, the fixed human response has been to gat…" by Bernard Lown?
Bernard Lown photo
Bernard Lown23
American cardiologist developer of the DC defibrillator and… 1921–2021

Related quotes

Newton Lee photo

“Had the early cavemen fought with atomic bombs instead of rocks and cattle bone clubs, the human species would have been extinct eons ago. With great power comes great responsibility.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Zbigniew Herbert photo

“I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience.”

Zbigniew Herbert (1924–1998) Polish writer

Quoted by Michael Hamburger, in his book, The Truth of Poetry.
Quoes

Antonin Scalia photo

“Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so, and I doubt that the basic challenges it has confronted are any worse now, or, alas, even much different, from what they ever were.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart graduation commencement speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJSOOYx6wYM, . <br class="br">2010s

The quote is mistakenly attributed to the author
Kim Jong-un photo

“Want to know what’s more destructive than a nuclear bomb? Words.”

Kim Jong-un (1984) 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea

Source: This is cannot be attributes to Kim Jong-un, this quote comes from movie The Interview (II) (2014)

Tom Robbins photo

“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

“The most interesting political questions throughout history have been whether or not humans will be ruled or free, whether they will be responsible for their actions as individuals or left irresponsible as members of society, and whether they can live in peace by volitional agreements alone.The fundamental question of politics has always been whether there should be politics.”

Karl Hess (1923–1994) American journalist

Foreword (1984) to The Market for Liberty (1970)

“A discipline, a region of the world of thought, should seek to know itself. Like an individual human being, it has received from its origins a stamp of character, a native mode of response to the situations confronting it. Right responses, 'responsibility', will require of the profession as of the individual an insight into the powers and defects of the tool which history has bequeathed to it.”

G. L. S. Shackle (1903–1992) British economist

Source: Epistemics and Economics. (1972), p. 24

“Now, over the last few decades, as the various global crises have been accumulating — climate change, the threat of nuclear war as well as the dangers of nuclear energy, the uncontrollability of the global financial system, and so on — we now hear people saying things like: “Look at what humanity has done.” Now suddenly the subject is “humanity,” whereas originally, Euro-Americans had claimed: “Look at the stunning achievements of the West.””

Talal Asad (1932) Aanthropologist at the CUNY Graduate Center

Interview by Hasan Azad, The Islamic Monthly, October 21, 2015 http://theislamicmonthly.com/being-human-an-interview-with-talal-asad/

Kofi Annan photo

“Throughout history, human life has been enriched by diversity, and different communities have learnt from each other. But, if our different communities are to live together in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity, and our shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law.”

Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Truman Library address (2006)
Context: Both security and development ultimately depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law.
— Although increasingly interdependent, our world continues to be divided — not only by economic differences, but also by religion and culture. That is not in itself a problem. Throughout history, human life has been enriched by diversity, and different communities have learnt from each other. But, if our different communities are to live together in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity, and our shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh photo

“Human experience throughout the ages has been enhanced through learning, information and communication.”

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (1938) Jordanian businesspeople

January 6, 2004, World Bank Video Series, Amman, Jordan.

Related topics