Endangered Wildlife

I must say, tonight's talk was nothing like what I expected it to be. I don't know why, but for some reason I had this vision of James Carroll spending an our discussing American Requiem, and I was a little taken aback when he didn't do that. I understand now that that would have been a totally absurd way to give a talk since everyone in the audience probably hasn't read his book.

So once I got past my initial shock, I was struck by his quote, "The human species has the capacity to make itself extinct." I had never thought of our dependence on nuclear warfare games like this, but it makes complete sense. We are the only species that would willingly cause ourselves (or a portion of ourselves)  to go extinct if it meant winning a war. We would be willing to lose entire cultures just to have the right to say we won. But who does that help in the end? Absolutely no one, that's who.

Nuclear warfare, and all warfare for that matter, is absolutely disgusting to me, and it amazes me that any civilization or country believes that they have the right to decide when another city or country deserves to die.   Carroll agrees with me, and I hope that his talks and books can influence the word to abolish nuclear warfare once and for all.