“The next war will be fought with stones.” – Albert Einstein

Truth resounds from this solemn call to reality: in a glossy world where supine minds dream of peace and eternal life. People walk the streets in a mundane gait, their heads down as they bypass the beauty of the earth. Nobody truly realizes that the world could be over in the push of a button and the crash of an atomic warhead.

The nuclear arms race may have ended long ago, but the threat of nuclear war fair is still alive. Einstein was trying to bring this to the attention of the masses. The quote really makes one think because at first, it makes no sense. Then it snaps; a picture of Hiroshima or Nagasaki passes across the minds eye. Within that split second one realizes the carnage, the destruction, death. Complete obliteration of people, culture, and love. Is that what our world will be reduced to in the next few centuries? Unfortunately, the answer is not a scorching “No!” or a jovial “Of course not”, but a whispering and doubt drenched “yes”.

The United States has manufactured a total of over 6000 nuclear war heads. Enough to destroy every major city in the world and summon a nuclear winter that would wipe the earth clean of all life. Einstein, who was involved in the Manhattan Project, knew the exact amount of force emitted from a nuclear device. He knew what chemical reactions were taking place and the physical properties of each reaction. But nobody realized the abominable force involved until the first bomb was dropped. A nuclear weapon with a 10 megaton yield is capable of wiping out all the structures of a large modern city. A weapon only ten times as large (100 megatons) could set wooden structures and forests ablaze from 60 to100 miles from the initial point of detonation. Einstein didn’t realize until much later that the atomic bomb was actually a machine of hatred and destruction.

Society is being warned. If we don’t stop our foolish medaling in nuclear war fair, there will be nothing left once the first and last nuclear war is fought. We will ultimately destroy ourselves until all is vaporized; save the instinctual desire for survival. Civilization will be erased from the face of our beautiful world and chaos will reign supreme. Cities will be reduced to rubble and nations will collapse into dust. Is this a very blatant and cynical point of view? Perhaps, but it’s the message people need to here. Not so they can live in fear, but so they can work towards peace. Einstein is warning us and it would be foolish to ignore a genius. The reality of nuclear war fair should be burning in the back of every person’s mind. We need to cast our irreconcilable differences away and work towards a common good. The future looks grim and the Way looks overcast with dark shadows of hatred and fear. Will humanity live on? Or will the next war be fought with stones?