BROCK CHISHOLM 
Though our present armament, nuclear, conventional, 
chemical and biological, is capable of killing everyone on earth, 
including ourselves, some three or four times over, very large 
numbers of peoplesincerely and earnestly believe that to increase 
our power to kill still further, to be able to kill everyone say 
ten times over, would, in some undefined way, increase our 
security. Of course this is entirely fallacious and irrational but 
such early-learned faiths are not dependent on evidence or 
rational thinking and persist against all experience and reality. 
The long centuries of conditioning to which we have been 
subjected will not quickly or easily give place to an era of 
rational thinking, even though our very existence depends on 
our ability to think soon enough and widely enough. We, as 
nations, are behaving as though the last fifteen years of scientific 
development in weaponry had not happened, simply because 
too many of us are emotionally incapable of seeing and accept- 
ing its evident consequences in relation to our survival, and of 
formulating new and unconventional alternatives to warfare. 
This is the greatest biological threat, indeed the first universal 
threat, against the human race, and we have no tradition of 
concern for survival at that level. Concern for individual or 
group survival, which is traditional, is no longer adequate for 
the new conditions and, where it is exclusive, it is in fact now 
suicidal. 
Because our ancestors did not develop any concern for the 
survival of the human race, no occasion having arisen until 
about fifteen years ago, we have no national institutions en- 
trusted with or designed for that purpose. This is an unassigned 
responsibility which has become extremely important, but 
which is still left to private and voluntary initiative. Only the 
United Nations and its specialized agencies, among all public 
institutions, come close to this area of responsibility, but they 
take their instructions from national authorities whose concern 
is overwhelmingly for national interest and advantage. This 
system and situation represent an extensive malfunctioning of 
human minds which is very dangerous. It appears that the next 
step in social responsibility and organization is biologically 
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