Einstein speaks on “How I see the world”; (Nov. 30, 2009)
Note: The translated book in French does not provide context to what Einstein’s wrote, published or delivered; thus, I have no sources for the dates or events or purpose for these documents except what I may conjecture.
Einstein wrote “pure religion or cosmic religiosity consists at feeling astonished and ecstatic before the harmony of nature’s laws and beauty that uncovers a superior intelligence that defies our comprehension. I know that my existence is limited and I ignore why I am on earth; I do know that I have this premonition that I am alive to the others: their smiles and happy nature condition my life. What I know is that who is questioning the meaning of life is going through a miserable period: he is not finding reason to live. More importantly is “Is there any sense for asking such a question on the meaning of life?”
I feel a thousand times a day that I am dependent to the work of the living and the dead. My home, my food, and my cloth are contributed by man of the community. What I know and what I feel I owe it to the other man. I cannot imagine of a man isolated from a community since his birth: I can only conceive that he would emulate the surrounding animals and environment. Only languages to communicate among people distinguish us from the animal kingdom.
“I am not that free and I appreciate Schopenhauer maxim “Man can do what he wants but he cannot want what he wishes”. I learned to look at the world with a sense of humor: I cannot be pre-occupied with the sense or purpose of my existence because it is objectively absurd. I have ideals such as the good, the beautiful, and the truth and I get obstinate pursuing ideals not even accessible to art or sciences. I loath human passions for wealth, glory, luxury, and power. Only justice is worth social engagement.”
“Creating and inventing require a unity in concept, direction, and sense of responsibility. I devoted my entire life with un-interrupted efforts to what I achieved and here you have people thinking that they can comprehend all my work by just listening to my expositions. My only criterion for judging a man is “To what degree and to what purpose has man liberated from his I?””
Gandhi incarnates the highest political genius of our civilization. I hate the military institution. Any person feeling this pleasure of marching in rank is utterly content with his limbic brain. There are no excuses for obeying orders that are contrary to our moral values, especially killing fellow man. I cannot imagine a God punishing and rewarding the object of his creation or regulating his will on my own experience. I do not want to conceive that we may survive after death: that is the ultimate in egoism.
“The mechanical organization of institutions, even in the scientific world, has substituted the individual innovators; thus, men of genius are becoming rare: citizens are neglecting the intellectual intelligence and the necessity of moral rights. I often have mixed feeling about individuals who have improved human life: I keep wondering of their moral objectives and if they really intended to do the good.
The discovery of the atomic bomb does not constitute a higher danger to humanity than match boxes: we have to suppress its usage. The fabrication of the H Bomb is a feasible objective: each progress generates consequences from prior progresses. Generalized annihilation of human kind is the most likely outcome. We are creating the means for our premature death. In the actual state of technology only a supra-national institution, an organization equipped with a world legal tribunal to decide on States’ differences and with executive power can eliminate fear and the need to arm for reciprocal defense.”
After the rise of Hitler to power Einstein reverted to pragmatism; first, he resigned his professorship at the University of Prussia, he incited France and Belgium to arm against Nazi programs, and he warned Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might acquire the atomic bomb if the US does not get on fabricating the atomic bomb as a deterrence tool. Einstein was also a staunch Zionist before the formal recognition of the State of Israel by the UN in 1948.
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