QUOTES
Every
adult in the world has some sense that he or she might be obliterated at any time
by these weapons that we have created.
I
think the practical alternative to what we've been doing in relation to terrorism
is to act in concert with other countries, with other groups.
our
absolute power in the world has very dangerous psychological reverberations for
us and for the world.
To
attribute the scandal at Abu Ghraib to "a few bad apples" or to "individual failures"
is poor psychology and self-serving pseudomorality. To be sure, individual soldiers
and civilians who participated in it are accountable for their behavior, even
under such pressured conditions. But the greater responsibility lies with those
who planned and executed the war on Iraq and the "war on terrorism" of which it
is a part, and who created, in policy and attitude, the accompanying denial of
rights of captives and suspects.
Psychologically
and ethically, responsibility for the crimes at Abu Ghraib extends to the Defense
Secretary, the Attorney General and the White House. Those crimes are a direct
expression of the kind of war we are waging in Iraq.
there's
no inherent human nature that requires us to kill or maim. We can go either way.
We have the potential for precisely that behavior of the Nazis or of what we did
in Vietnam, or of some kind of more altruistic or cooperative behavior. We can
go either way.
Stepping
off the superpower treadmill would also enable us to cease being a nation ruled
by fear. Renouncing omnipotence would make our leaders themselves less fearful
of weakness, and diminish their inclination to instill fear in their people as
a means of enlisting them for illusory military efforts at world hegemony. Without
the need for invulnerability, everyone would have much less to be afraid of.
[Our
biggest opportunity at this moment in history is] perhaps a deeper connection
with all human beings. That kind of connection, made possible by our various technologies,
simply couldn’t exist before recent times. The connection guarantees nothing,
but it does offer an opportunity for expressions of a global spirit, or what I
call a “species consciousness” or “species self.” What that means is not that
one ceases to be an American, or a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Hindu.
One is any of those and at the same time, in one’s own sense of self, a human
being. This kind of species consciousness is expanding. Perhaps it represents
our greatest opportunity.
