Blog 18

                Part two of the biography Albert Einstein: Ideas and Opinions described Einstein’s views of politics, government, and pacifism. All of the excerpts about Einstein’s views of these areas are very insightful and important to consider, the one that stood out to me the most and seemed as the best summation of his other accounts of pacifism was the section “The pacifist problem.” In it Einstein talks about people should not rely solely on the government to solve all sorts of problems and deny that the problem involves them in anyway. He goes on to state that it is a person’s job and right to stand up for their morals conscientious objection alongside other organizations with the same ideals, even if that means standing against one’s government. Darwin and McClintock demonstrated this kind of conscientious objection when both stood up for their research and fought for the truths of their discoveries to be made known despite the backlash they had to face from it. In this day and age the same problem occurs; people stand back and let the government handle tough issues even though this creates greater problems. There is definitely more social acceptance of people standing up for their own rights and the establishment of organizations that do the same, but there is also just as much pacifism from people who think their actions, or lack thereof, have no effect on others even though they do. Pacifism is something that is a huge issue in the scientific community today and even though it is getting better with the political climate, often scientists tend to stand back and let society figure out problems itself, even if this involves scientific issues. If scientists today stood up for their morals and findings through conscientious objection as Einstein stated and Darwin and McClintock demonstrated, the public would likely have a clearer understanding of the issue and there would be less political strife about the issue as well.

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