Epilogue: Aggression and Its Alternatives in the Conduct of International Relations

by John E. Mack, M.D.

Long before the nuclear superpowers began to extend their competition into space Bertrand Russell (1959) wrote, “When I read of plans to defile the heavens by the petty squabbles of the animated lumps that disgrace a certain planet, I cannot but feel that the men who make these plans are guilty of a kind of impiety” (p. 19). Russell’s words lead us to a central dynamic, the arrogance of power of nations spiritually adrift, terrorized by the destructive energy that their scientists have released from particles of matter.

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If We Ended the Arms Race

by Robert Coles and John Mack

A 60-year-old friend told us that he was beaten up in his own home in Washington, D.C., not long ago when he surprised a large man who was ransacking the apartment. The man was looking for television equipment he could sell to buy drugs. He was also one of more than 10,000 people on parole in that city, most of whom are drug offenders. Many of these men have been let out of prison because there are not enough jail cells to hold them. At the same time, parole officers carry heavy caseloads, and funds for rehabilitation and treatment are drying up.

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