○  英文演讲:我们该选择死亡吗？  ○

shall we choose death?

bertrand russell

december 30, 1954

i am speaking not as a briton, not as a european, not as a member of a western democracy, but as a human being, a member of the species man, whose continued existence is in doubt. the world is full of conflicts: jews and arabs; indians and pakistanis; white men and negroes in africa; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic struggle between communism and anticommunism.

almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but i want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings for the moment and consider yourself only as a member of a biological species which has had a remarkable history and whose disappearance none of us can desire. i shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another. all, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it. we have to learn to think in a new way. we have to learn to ask ourselves not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps. the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all sides?

the general public, and even many men in positions of authority, have not realized what would be involved in a war with hydrogen bombs. the general public still thinks in terms of the obliteration of cities. it is understood that the new bombs are more powerful than the old and that, while one atomic bomb could obliterate hiroshima, one hydrogen bomb could obliterate the largest cities such as london, new york, and moscow. no doubt in a hydrogen-bomb war great cities would be obliterated. but this is one of the minor disasters that would have to be faced. if everybody in london, new york, and

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