Stephen Hawking on Syria

 

It matters, it matters a lot that one of the world’s greatest thinkers, a humanist at heart, is declaring what he thinks of the war in Syria and the failure of humanity to stop it. His point of view is of great importance because he is weighing his arguments against the fate of man and life on earth. Hawking is concerned about civilization and accordingly, he evaluates the Syrian war and the miscarriage of universal ethics to do something about it from this perspective.  Alisar

 

Stephen Hawking

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/

Syria’s war must end

 By Stephen Hawking, Published: February 14

Stephen Hawking is the author of “A Brief History of Time” and a former professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that the universe had existed forever. The reason humanity was not more developed, he believed, was that floods or other natural disasters repeatedly set civilization back to the beginning.

Today, humans are developing ever faster. Our knowledge is growing exponentially and with it, our technology. But humans still have the instincts, and in particular the aggressive impulses, that we had in caveman days. Aggression has had definite advantages for survival, but when modern technology meets ancient aggression the entire human race and much of the rest of life on Earth is at risk.

Today in Syria we see modern technology in the form of bombs, chemicals and other weapons being used to further so-called intelligent political ends.

But it does not feel intelligent to watch as more than 100,000 people are killed or while children are targeted. It feels downright stupid, and worse, to prevent humanitarian supplies from reaching clinics where, as Save the Children will document in a forthcoming report, children are having limbs amputated for lack of basic facilities and newborn babies are dying in incubators for lack of power.What’s happening in Syria is an abomination, one that the world is watching coldly from a distance. Where is our emotional intelligence, our sense of collective justice?When I discuss intelligent life in the universe, I take this to include the human race, even though much of its behavior throughout history appears not to have been calculated to aid the survival of the species. And while it is not clear that, unlike aggression, intelligence has any long-term survival value, our very human brand of intelligence denotes an ability to reason and plan for not only our own but also our collective futures.We must work together to end this war and to protect the children of Syria. The international community has watched from the sidelines for three years as this conflict rages, engulfing all hope. As a father and grandfather, I watch the suffering of Syria’s children and must now say: No more.I often wonder what we must look like to other beings watching from deep space. As we look out at the universe, we are looking back in time, because light leaving distant objects reaches us much, much later. What does the light emitting from Earth today show? When people see our past, will we be proud of what they are shown — how we, as brothers, treat each other? How we allow our brothers to treat our children?

We now know that Aristotle was wrong: The universe has not existed forever. It began about 14 billion years ago. But he was right that great disasters represent major steps backward for civilization. The war in Syria may not represent the end of humanity, but every injustice committed is a chip in the facade of what holds us together. The universal principle of justice may not be rooted in physics but it is no less fundamental to our existence. For without it, before long, human beings will surely cease to exist.

Stephen Hawking

I commented on the direction  some of the comments in The Washington Post were taking,  the usual inhumane  jargon, by saying:

Stephen Hawking knows what he is talking about. He is talking about civilization and humanity in terms of life on earth, evolution and the terrible perils that might return man to the cave. But some debaters refuse to see that Syria is part of the whole that might place the whole in the vortex of disaster. They cling to platitudes and banalities, thus sinking the debate to the usual level of rotten, stinking,  political debate.  Alisar