“The most important question that's ever been asked in human history, a question that should be uppermost in one's mind. It’s been hanging over our heads like a kind of sort of Damocles for many years, becoming more urgent every year, and it has now reached the point that the question will be answered in this generation. That's your challenge to answer. It can't be delayed. The question is whether organized human life will indeed survive, and not in the distant future.
The question was raised clearly to everyone with eyes open on August 6, 1945. I was then roughly your age, happened to be at a summer camp I was counselor. In the morning an announcement came over the loudspeaker saying that the United States had obliterated the city of Hiroshima with a single bomb, the atom bomb. People listened. A few expressions of relief and then everyone went on to their next activity, baseball game, swimming, whatever it might be. I was horrified, both by the news and also by the casual reaction, so utterly horrified that I just took off and went off into the woods for a couple of hours to think about it.
It was perfectly obvious if you thought for a second not only about the horror of the events but that humans in their glory had achieved the capacity to destroy everything.”
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