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granted that we can pickup a phone
and call a fri end living in Europe or
Asia. We expect the televised eve–
ning news (i tself an electronic mira–
ele) to include on-the-spot live
repor ts from sorne far distant land.
Or that one can, by way of ai r travel,
in a matter of mere hours personally
strike a business deal with a fi rm
hundreds of miles away.
At the same time, the Natíonal
Aeronautics and Space Adminístra–
tion (NASA) space shuttle may be
performing sophi sticated experi–
ments in orbit 700 miles above the
earth. Or the Soviets will set a new
record for time spent by humans in
a space station . Or an ínfrared
orbiting telescope may discover
unexpected know ledge about a
nearby solar system.
In sharp contrast , a domestic j et
liner carrying 269 passengers is
blasted out of the sky. Small nations
in Latín Amer ica divert desperately
needed moneys for industrial and
educational development into mili-
If
so, there now is a thunderous
cacophony, worldwide, of nearly
níne millíon
political refu gees
sounding forth the basic inability of
man to govern himself!
Amid the paradox of technology
and human suffering, the voice of
the prophet críes out , "The way of
peace they know not" (lsa. 59:8)!
One U.S. newsmagazine put it
this way: "T he dominant view is
coming to be that the problems of
the world may be too deep-seated
to be controlled except by a s trong
hand from someplace."
Many prominent scient ists, poli–
ticians and world leaders are calling
today for what would be the only
effective guarantee against absolute
nuclear devastation: world govern–
ment.
Their reasoning is well summed
up in this statement by the late
Albert Einstein : " I am definite ly
not
of the opinion that the danger
of war can be eliminated without
world government. Without such a
concrete safeguard, the
arms race and , ultimately,
world war are inevitable.
"To 'outlaw' anything
is of no value," he contin–
ued. "We know from long
experience ... that with–
out safeguards such obl i–
gations, however honestly
intended , are not honored
in the event of war."
In Africa, often unwanted and sometimes forgotten,
are about ha lf of the world 's nine million refugees.
Even at the birth of the
U.N., ma ny remained
skeptica l o f its value.
Covering the birth pangs
of the U.N. in London, a
reporter for
The New
York Times
wrote, Janu–
ary 1
O,
1946, that "fifty–
o ne nations of th e
greatest war-time coali–
tion in history ... star ted
today another chapter in
tary hardware purchases. And
babies gasp their last breath before
succumbing to severe malnutrition
in Africa and other continents.
For all humanity's awesome
technological capacity, the specter
of starvation, bloodshed and an–
archy continues to haunt govern–
ments worldwide.
What IS the Hope o f t he Future?
Lenin once said that political refu–
gees vote with their feet.
6
man's melancholy search for peace
and security."
After thousands of years o f
yearning for peace, is
that
the best
humanity has to offer? A "melan–
choly search for peace"?
After a plea for world unity by
then British Prime Minister Clem–
ent Attlee, the first meeting of
the United Nations General As–
sembly quickly disi ntegrated into
an ugly política! fl oor fi gh t as
superpowers struggled to install a
preside nt o f the assembly tha t
would favor their own personal
interests. So much for " beating
swords into plowshares. "
It
was
merely a laste of the bitterness that
was to come.
What We Have Come To
What do we face today? "We hold
this entire terrestrial creation hos–
tage to nuclear destruction, threat–
ening to hurl it back into the inani–
ma te darkness from which it
carne," declares author Jonathan
Schell in his best-selling book
The
Fate of the Earth.
" l ndeed ," he continued, " if we
are honest with ourselves we have
to admit that unless we r id our–
selves of nuclear arsenals a holo–
caust not only
might
occur but
wi/1
occur-if not today, then tomor–
row; if not this year, then the next.
We have cometo live on borrowed
time : ever y year of continued
human life on earth is a borrowed
year, every day a borrowed day"
(emphasis his).
Mr. Schell's solution : " Today
the only way to achieve genuine
national defense for any nation is
for all nations to give up violence
aJtogether." Further, he calls for a
new world order: " We must lay
down our arms, relinquish sover–
eignty, and found a political system
for the peaceful settlement of inter–
national disputes."
G overnments
are
ultima tel y
responsible for whatever good or
ev il society attains to. But in
response to Mr. Schell 's solution,
the question must be asked: What
hum a n gove rnment is great
enough to bring peace, prosperity
and joy to the huma n heart?
What huma n government can
g uarantee safet y from nuclear
extinction?
L et ' s Be Ho nest !
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in a now–
famous address at Harvard Uni–
versity, put it this way:
" 1
have
spent all my life under a Commu–
nist regime and I will tell you that
a society without any objective
legal scale is a terrible one indeed.
But a society with no other scale
but the legal one [as in the Uni ted
States] is also less than worthy of
man. A society based on the lette r
(Continued on page 39)
The
PLAIN TRUTH