名人演讲：Shall We Choose Death-.docx

名人演讲:Shall We Choose Death?
shall we choose death?
bertrand russell
december 30, 1954
i am speaking not as a briton, not as a european, not as a member of a western democracy, but as a human being, a member of the species man, whose continued existence is in doubt. the world is full of conflicts: jews and arabs; indians and pakistanis; white men and negroes in africa; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic struggle munism and munism.
almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but i want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings for the moment and consider yourself only as a member of a biological species which has had a remarkable history and whose disappearance none of us can desire. i shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another. all, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it. we have to learn to think in a new way. we have to learn to ask ourselves not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps. the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all sides?
the general public, and even many men in positions of authority, have not real