"William Tenn - Generation of Noah" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

weapons that would equalize the difference between them and the great powers of the Earth. All they had
to do was find the right messenger with a suitcase to deliver them.
War is by no means gone from our planet, as a glance at almost any continent will unmistakably
show. And if war ever comes our way again...
There is Lenin's dictum as enunciated in State and Revolution: "No ruling class in his-tory ever laid
down power of its own free will." Which makes me think of Hitler, 1945, in that last bunker in the ruins
of Berlin. An aide comes to him and says, "Mein Fuhrer, we have just now perfected a weapon that will
vaporize the enemy, city by city, patch of coun-tryside by patch of countryside. ButтАФ"
"But what?" yells red-eyed Hitler.
"If we use it, we just may set off a reaction that will destroy the entire planet. What should we do?"
And Hitler, hearing the Russian guns going off in one direction, and knowing that the Americans,
British, and French are scant miles off in the other directionтАФwhat do you think Adolf Hitler would say
to do?
No, until we as a species grow a couple of moral inches, or until we have daughter colonies on
planets outside Earth, until thenтАФ
I will keep my Greek chorus ending.


Written 1947 / Published 1951