The Unfinished
Twentieth Century
Jonathan Schell
There is no security
in mutually-assured destruction.
E. F. SCHUMACHER's
last book is entitled A Guide for the Perplexed. For those of us who remain
perplexed by the collective insanity that continues to hold planet Earth and all
its people on the brink of nuclear annihilation, this latest contribution from
Jonathan Schell may be a very helpful guide.
Many of the
historical events that have led to humankind living under constant threat of
extermination are analysed here in a surprisingly small package, with brilliant
insights and connections.
Schell begins by
looking through the eyes of Joseph Conrad, who, in 1899, based his book Heart of
Darkness on atrocities in the Congo perpetrated on behalf of Belgium, which was
then considered to be a civilised nation. Conrad's uncanny premonitions
concerning empty, amoral, charismatic leaders preludes the 'short' twentieth
century, a period of actual or threatened terrible violence beginning in 1914
and possibly ending in 1991.
Those seventy-seven
years contained the horrors of two world wars, deliberate genocidal massacres by
totalitarian dictators based on race or on class, and the total destruction of
cities full of civilians by 'conventional' and nuclear aerial bombardment. This
was followed by the insane arms race of the Cold War, when up to 70,000 nuclear
warheads stood ready for instant use in a balance of terror known by the apt
acronym mad (Mutually Assured Destruction).
Schell's revealing
insights include the links between totalitarianism and total war, the way
pseudo-science contributed to dehumanising victims by mis-extrapolating the
theories of Darwin and Marx, and the abuse of science and mathematics in games
theories used to provide the 'deterrence' excuse for mad. He also describes how
the concept of extermination migrated from totalitarian regimes into liberal
democracies.
With the break-up
and 'democratisation' of the Soviet Union in 1991, the terrible 'short century'
might have seemed to be over. But Schell puzzles over the 30,000 nuclear terror
weapons that remain in place, despite so many protests from people who once
believed them necessary but are now calling for their abolition.
The threat of
extermination remains, with proliferation more on the agenda than abolition. So
it will not be possible to evaluate and understand the 'short' century of savage
violence until the issue of human survival is resolved one way or the other.
That 'century' thus remains 'unfinished'.
Schell concludes,
"What seems clear is that if the triumphantly restored liberal order of the
1990s cannot renounce the threat of extermination of peoples as a condition for
its own survival, then it will forfeit any chance that it can successfully
oppose a resurgence of barbarism anywhere else in the twenty-first century."
That prediction has
indeed been validated all too soon by events following 11th September 2001.
A second essay is
included in this slim volume. In The Pitiless Crowbar of Events (Solzhenitsyn's
term), Schell looks at how, in the past, critical political choices were avoided
until too late, and how decisions that seem politically impossible now must
nonetheless be faced. The essay points to some of the ways whereby the people in
control of exterminating devices might be persuaded towards constructive and
safe solutions.
I hope this new book
will prove as helpful as Schell's writing certainly was twenty years ago. At the
height of the Cold War, his 1982 book, The Fate of the Earth, penetrated the
dangerous mythologies of the nuclear age to reveal the terrible underlying
reality. It must have affected many influential minds, and so helped guide
humanity through an extremely dangerous period. It was much later revealed that
the world came as close to nuclear war in 1983, through misunderstandings, as it
did in 1962 in the Cuban missile crisis - and that was very close indeed.
Hopefully, Jonathan
Schell's continuing work against these frightening, and often wilfully
overlooked, threats to our existence, along with the efforts of people like
General Lee Butler, who campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons from a
very real knowledge of the alternative, will prove successful. So humanity might
be saved, and a positive conclusion made to the terrible century just past.
Roger Franklin is an
occasional contributor to Resurgence, usually concerning nuclear dangers. He is
a tax resister and is active in the Trident Ploughshares campaign.
from
Resurgence
issue 219
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Jarda Kelly
United States
