so long that I maybe ought to carry a pocket radiation meter to be sure I don't read it too much. What is this noble publication? An inquiry, it claims, into the means for controlling atomic energy and assuring world peace."
"And a pretty complete, exhaustive inquiry, too."
"Is it? Is it even a scientific inquiry? The atomic bomb will never go to war by itself. Men will drop, toss, or convey it."
"Sure. And the Bulletin has taken up every known means by which people can he told what atomic energy is, and why it must be controlled, and how to do that. Every step of the debate in the House and the Senate--and the debates in the United Nations--has been followed. Every idea my fellow physicists could hit on has been aired--"
"With no result."
"No result, my eye! If we hadn't ganged up to make Congress see that atomic energy was more than a military matter--soldiers would control the whole business right now."
"Grant that. You did get the AEC appointed. The brass doesn't run the whole domestic show. But the world show is run entirely from the viewpoint of possible war."
"Do you expect the physicists to he able to do anything about Russia and the Iron Curtain--when all the statesmen of all the nations can't drive a pinhole in it?"
"Look. There are too many places where you lads aren't really scientific at all.
You run a magazine to investigate ways for avoiding atomic war. Men make war. But never in your Bulletin did I once see an article about human motivations. An article by a top-notch psychologist. A digest, even, of the existing science of human personality--and how that might apply to war, to atomic bombs, to international relations."
"Psychology isn't our business. We're specialists."
I slightly sneered at him. "Son, when you are trying to stop wars, psychology is the only business you're in! You're in the business of trying to answer the questions about what makes men tick--including the tick they make these days that sounds so much like an infernal machine. But you think that's still the reason--business."
"A lot of big shots," Paul answered, "have called on the psychologists to contribute. Asked them to speed the work on their science and the science of sociology--
so we'll have a solid technical basis for establishing peace."
"Yeah. They have. And not one God-damned superbrain in the barrel has stopped to note for a moment--so far as I'm aware--that the psychologists are 'way ahead of them.
The science of personality--of behavior--of consciousness and instinct--is well along. The psychologists could tell them why men fight. They could tell them why--so far as present evidence indicates--men are going to go right ahead having wars--atomic bombs, germs, and all--into the far, foreseeable future."
"Why?" he asked mildly.
"Oh--because they exploit individualism and never take any responsibility for it.
Their hostilities and aggressions, frustrations and fears--add up, inside their groups, and burst out, since they're never even noticed, let alone dealt with, on the personal and private level, where they originate."
"So you have written," he grinned. "So what? Should we pure scientists simply say that peace is hopeless? Quit cold? Or try for peace with what we do know?"
"You and your pure science! Pure is a word that should be forbidden all of you.
What's pure in a science that deals exclusively with the object and rules out the subject doing the dealing?"
"Just," Paul answered, "the result. If we hadn't ruled man out of man's investigations, we'd still believe the earth was fiat, the sky was a cup, and the stars were holes in it. We'd still be premedieval--"
"Yet--when you did establish the objective facts to a considerable degree--set up physics and chemistry and biology--did you boys then turn that knowledge and that method upon yourselves?"
"You claim," Paul answered airily, "that the psychologists have done so."
"Yes. And you needn't pretend I have no right to make the claim.
"And a pretty complete, exhaustive inquiry, too."
"Is it? Is it even a scientific inquiry? The atomic bomb will never go to war by itself. Men will drop, toss, or convey it."
"Sure. And the Bulletin has taken up every known means by which people can he told what atomic energy is, and why it must be controlled, and how to do that. Every step of the debate in the House and the Senate--and the debates in the United Nations--has been followed. Every idea my fellow physicists could hit on has been aired--"
"With no result."
"No result, my eye! If we hadn't ganged up to make Congress see that atomic energy was more than a military matter--soldiers would control the whole business right now."
"Grant that. You did get the AEC appointed. The brass doesn't run the whole domestic show. But the world show is run entirely from the viewpoint of possible war."
"Do you expect the physicists to he able to do anything about Russia and the Iron Curtain--when all the statesmen of all the nations can't drive a pinhole in it?"
"Look. There are too many places where you lads aren't really scientific at all.
You run a magazine to investigate ways for avoiding atomic war. Men make war. But never in your Bulletin did I once see an article about human motivations. An article by a top-notch psychologist. A digest, even, of the existing science of human personality--and how that might apply to war, to atomic bombs, to international relations."
"Psychology isn't our business. We're specialists."
I slightly sneered at him. "Son, when you are trying to stop wars, psychology is the only business you're in! You're in the business of trying to answer the questions about what makes men tick--including the tick they make these days that sounds so much like an infernal machine. But you think that's still the reason--business."
"A lot of big shots," Paul answered, "have called on the psychologists to contribute. Asked them to speed the work on their science and the science of sociology--
so we'll have a solid technical basis for establishing peace."
"Yeah. They have. And not one God-damned superbrain in the barrel has stopped to note for a moment--so far as I'm aware--that the psychologists are 'way ahead of them.
The science of personality--of behavior--of consciousness and instinct--is well along. The psychologists could tell them why men fight. They could tell them why--so far as present evidence indicates--men are going to go right ahead having wars--atomic bombs, germs, and all--into the far, foreseeable future."
"Why?" he asked mildly.
"Oh--because they exploit individualism and never take any responsibility for it.
Their hostilities and aggressions, frustrations and fears--add up, inside their groups, and burst out, since they're never even noticed, let alone dealt with, on the personal and private level, where they originate."
"So you have written," he grinned. "So what? Should we pure scientists simply say that peace is hopeless? Quit cold? Or try for peace with what we do know?"
"You and your pure science! Pure is a word that should be forbidden all of you.
What's pure in a science that deals exclusively with the object and rules out the subject doing the dealing?"
"Just," Paul answered, "the result. If we hadn't ruled man out of man's investigations, we'd still believe the earth was fiat, the sky was a cup, and the stars were holes in it. We'd still be premedieval--"
"Yet--when you did establish the objective facts to a considerable degree--set up physics and chemistry and biology--did you boys then turn that knowledge and that method upon yourselves?"
"You claim," Paul answered airily, "that the psychologists have done so."
"Yes. And you needn't pretend I have no right to make the claim.
Similar Books
