Recently we watched the finale of the National Geographic docudrama: Genius. It's a show about Albert Einstein, his life and accomplishments.
Einstein lived in the era of both of the World Wars, when new weapons were developed on both sides to "win the wars", which combined to kill close to 100 millions people (loosely citing Wikipedia). Wars are dark and cruel, in addition to the casualties, countless people were displaced and their lives ruined. It's ironic, if the cost was so many lives, then how could it be a "win?" What was the gain? Who is the winner? I say, both sides were losers and there was no winner. What kind of ideology was worthwhile of people's precious lives?
Einstein was a pacifist. He was against the use of science to build weapons. But some of his colleagues had different aspirations, so their talents were exploited, and they went on to create the most deadly chemical weapons and the atomic bomb. I think Einstein's biggest regret had to be his association with the massive destructive weapon - the atomic bomb. He might have wondered whether he could have done more to prevent the catastrophes.
People living in war times live under a dark cloud, and their day to day lives were around survival. At the end of WWII, people were severely scarred. My grandparents lived and survived the dark days of wars. My parents were born around the end of WWII, and experienced poverty in their youth. Back then, no one took the hard fought peace for granted. People just kept their heads down, work hard, live decent lives, and taught their children good values.
Now we are many years from the end of WWII. Living in the U.S. with relative peace and comfort, despite isolated terrorism and gun violence, have we become complacent with the peace and prosperity we are enjoying? There is no rule saying we are entitled to live in peace, while our previous generations lived in turmoil. We need to work hard to keep peace around us and around the world, but not be arrogant and feckless. Isn't this the purpose of learning history?
