AS SIMPLE AS IT SOUNDS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28802, 24 January 1959, Page 12

AS SIMPLE AS IT SOUNDS

IBy WHIM WHAM) "There are those In both camps who think that the extermination of the human race Would be a smaller evil than victory of the enemy. I regard this view, whether held by A or B, as insane."—Bertrand Russell's new book, "Common . Sense and Nuclear Warfare,” quoted in news item. Sir, I think I am at least partially sane, So I’m going to try this Tune out on my ill-strung Brain. The Extermination of the Human Race Is an, Idea Few of us can conceive, let alone face. Like .Infinity, or Eternity, or the perfect State, It. Baffles otir limited Faculties to excogitate Any Description of the Thing that sounds sensible, And the Language of the Poets, etc., who attempt it as apt to be incomprehensible ' .. • v 4/ To All but perhaps a Few and THEY can’t make themselvbs understood. To the Millions who can’t see the Light, and who, if they could, Would be dazed, dumbfounded and terrified— Most of us only being able to live with Truths that can be (up to a Point) verified. A Planet without any Human Beings infesting it! Let’s fumble with the-Notion a Bit with a View to testing it Now, Sir I imagine that most of the Jokers who try To imagine such a Thing won’t be willing to deny That it can’t be done without eliminating THEMSELVES from the Scene, And in that case, if you see what I mean, The very Idea itself is impossible to entertain, Since Nobody on Earth capable of forming it can remain! ‘ —Which might or might not be a comforting Reflection, But the Logic of it (alas) doesn’t bear any close Inspection In the Light of the few meagre Facts known about Mankind's Brief History:—for whether or not our Minds Can seize the Thing is altogether immaterial, Since there have been so many surprising Instalments in the hjiman Serial, And it can hardly be ruled out as impossible, then, That one Day the Author will write FINIS and lay down his Pen, This Idea of an empty Planet May elude OUR Grasp but not that of the Mind which began It. (Sir, I can’t help it if all This appears to beg The Concept of Continuous Creation and that other old Question about the Chicken and the Egg) . . . Man doesn’t want to exterminate himself (or so he supposes) But the all-too-obvious Truth that his recent Progress shows, is That new for the first Time in all Time he’s got the equipment to do JUST THAT ! And you don’t have to be specially gifted to see what Lord Russell and I are getting at.