“The release of atomic power has changed everything – except our way of thinking…”
Albert Einstein, 1946
For more than 70 years, the world has learned to live with possibility of ending all life on this planet, through the use – accidentally or on purpose – of the most destructive weapon ever invented.
The New Reality is that now, finally, these weapons are on their way out. The world has spoken. And they have not just said ‘we want to get rid of these weapons’. The world has been saying that for over 70 years. What the new Treaty says is that these weapons are prohibited. They are illegal. They are criminalized. They are cast out. They are banned. They are now considered to be in the same category as landmines, cluster bombs, chemical and biological weapons – weapons the civilized world does not accept.
What does it mean to come to terms with this new reality? It means refusing to enter into discussions that assume these weapons will be around forever, or that try to justify why we must hold onto them. Instead of being confounded by the difficulties of untangling ourselves from decades of dependency on these weapons, we need to be saying that these weapons are going – sooner or later they are going. So we need to get used to that idea and we need to be thinking now how to overcome all those difficulties.
The thinking that allows us to accept the end of the world as a price worth paying to feel ‘safe’
The thinking needed to move us to a nuclear weapon free world
Who wants to abolish nuclear weapons?
How to talk about nuclear weapons in the New Reality