Millennialism, Cohen and Me

Roger Cohen wrote a nice piece today, NYT.

He sees Obama's vision of a world without nuclear weapons as dangerous.

``Dangerous Nuclear Illusions''

I disagree with Cohen, and here I explain why.

To be fair, Cohen is presenting a point of view shared by most people in the beginning of the 21st century.

I share  Einstein's idea, that humanity has entered a new era, the Nuclear Era, and that the sooner we acknowledge it, the better.

Let us boringly start with powers of ten.

Take Hiroshima's bomb. Multiply it  by ten, and we still are not at the level of the Hydrogen bomb. Multiply it by ten again; not there yet; you need three powers of ten. If all of a sudden, every dollar you have turned into a grand bill, of a thousand, you'll be very happy. If now you are threatened by a bomb, one thousand times stronger, you should be scared, very scared.

Heads of state are not that much different than the people they represent. Look at the stupidity you, or your neighbor sometimes show. Now imagine this putative neighbor with his finger in the ``red button''



Do you trust your neighbor, do you trust yourself?

Millennialism means that after a thousand years more and more humans understand much more than a thousand years prior. Humanity gets restless, and all kinds of Messiahs appear. It has always happened, it will always happen.

Beware of Messiahs in the Nuclear Era.