 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
It would now be technically possible to unify the world and abolish war altogether. It would also be technically possible to abolish poverty completely. These things would be done if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies. There were, in the past, physical obstacles to human well-being. The only obstacles now are in the soul of men. Hatred, folly and mistaken beliefs alone stand between us and the millennium
Source： Bertrand Russell: Portraits from Memory and Other Essays, 1956, chap. 4: From Logic to Politics, p.39.
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It is possible to abolish country-to-country wars by creating a world federal government, and by ‘hunting for swords’ as Hideyoshi did, so that only the federal government has the military. However, every country has its nationalists, who seek to defend to the death its sovereignty (especially the right to wage war ‘in the name of defence’). Also, major powers try to impose their will on other countries, backed by overwhelming military power. Today, overt acts of aggression have largely ceased, but the world remains a world of the weak and the strong.
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