Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-04-20

Dr. J, Robert oppenheimer, In his
remarks here last week 10 the Inter-
national Press Institute, said a num-
Der OF eloquently philosophical things
about the consequences OF mankindS
feasting on the fruit OF the tree OF the
knowledge OF good and evil. And not
the least important OF those things was
his suggestion. In keeping with what is
written In Genesis, that human beings
everywhere will continue TO- eat OF that
fruit In sorrow all the days OF their lives.
That is, they will do so, and with i'm
menSe danger TO themselves, unless they
learn TO work and live together as good
neighbors In a universal community
where hearts and minds alike are open,
and where no walls, no curtains, no
massive suspicious, no dark and deadly
secrets any longer divide one people
from another.
In making this point, DR.. Open
heimer put particular stress on a con-
sideration that seems TO be quite as true
as II Is chilling-namely that the ma
lions OF the world probably never will
be able to establish genuinely effective
control over the almost unimaginably
terrible weapons now in their arsenals,
or over the even more awesome destroy
erS that their genius is capable of de-
veloping in the future. Actually, in his
opinion, the idea of such control is
Utopian because Of the "indeScribable
difficulties" of negotiating an agree
ment to effectuate it, and the difficulties
In turn flow inexorably from two basic
factors In the nature of scientific prog
reSS. The first of these is "the enormous
and unpredictable rapidity with which
new things come up, so that you can't
possibly devise an instrument of dis
armament" that will be good 10, 20 or
80 years hence, unless intellectual in
quiry and discovery are outlawed-a pro-
hibition which men could hardly enact
or enforce even if they wanted to. And
the second is that knowledge. the &C
QUESTION of knowledge, is for all prac-
tical purposes" so reversible and so
much here to stay that, "once you have
nations flying at each others Threats,
everything they ever learned to do, they
would be quit capable of doing again
and in manner that could mean the
virtual humiliation of humanity.
DR.. Oppenheimer, however, has thus
downgraded the quest for disarmament
not because 1t is too Utopian, but be-
cause cit really isn't Utopian enough"
Accordingly, he has called for some
thing that goes far beyond a mere agree
ment on the elimination or control of
weapons. Having in view the uniquely
revolutionary and perilous nature of our
age, he has called for a transformation
OF the human mind and Spirit-for a
universal conversion which would sweep
away all the undesirable present habits
of national thought and action, and
which would inspire the world to trans
late into reality a great vision OF
"transnational institutions"
This is not actually new vision, OF
course. 1t is the old elusive one of an
open and true brotherhood of man, and
"realists" are likely to keep on scofing
at 1t as they have always done. Never
theleSs, in these times, with the tree of
knowledge giving forth good and-evil
fruit In seemingly limitlesS abundance,
nations can remain blind to such
Utopia only at the risk Of drifting
toward war of mutual obiteration.