Blind followers

By Alex P. Vidal

“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”—Denis Diderot

WE’VE noticed that some Filipinos, including a few Ilonggos, who shockingly praised Vladimir Putin and gave “approval” to the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine, were the same characters who followed and have professed strong adherence to authoritarian leaders.

They were the blind followers of controversial political and religious leaders who have wreaked havoc on the lives of ordinary people in various means: summary execution, graft and corruption, sexual slavery, labor exploitation, to mention only a few cases of abuse.

Many of these blind followers did not actually understand what they were saying, or why they favored Putin’s sadistic move to attack an independent state.

At first, they were horrified to see both unarmed and armed civilian casualties as Kremlin’s tanks and armored vehicles rolled over Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities.

They were poised to denounce the war (which is a natural reaction of any normal human being), but when they learned or heard the objects of their idolatry speak against “US and NATO’s unfair policy”, etcetera, these blind followers suddenly changed their tune and their hearts turned to stone.

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They also started to heap praises on the disgraced and the world’s most hated person, Vladimir Putin. And they “didn’t care” at all if more civilians were killed “because that is part of the war and because NATO and US asked for it by provoking Putin blah blah blah.”

“Those who blamed Putin did not read history blah blah blah”, “They should blame NATO and the US for their foreign policies that threatened and forced Putin to defend Russia blah blah blah.”

We are not against people who air a different view or opinion, however frightening and weird, provided they can defend what they are saying, or they did not copy their stand from the words of their false idols.

Interestingly, when we checked some of their past records, some of these blind followers were the ones who spewed expletives and condemned ABS-CBN when the network was fighting tooth and nail for the renewal of its franchise for no apparent justification.

Just like in the Ukraine invasion, at first seemed sympathetic to the plight of the dead civilians, but changed course when their false idols kissed Putin’s ass.

When their false idols attacked ABS-CBN, they also started to attack the network. There’s really a pattern here, and it’s so pathetic and really disturbing.

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I was scared literally when I read Dan Evon’s reminder to humanity about the horror of using atomic bombs in any war.

The Snope writer told us of an old purported quote from theoretical physicist Albert Einstein which embarked on another lap around the internet in April 2018 as some global citizens fretted about the start of a new world war after the United States, the United Kingdom, and France launched missiles at targets in Syria.

“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein.

This quote (or at least a version of it) dates back to the 1940s, when the first nuclear weapons were being developed. Although Einstein didn’t actually develop the atom bomb, his work did make such a device possible.

Einstein did not work directly on the atom bomb, according to Evon, but Einstein was the father of the bomb in two important ways: 1) it was his initiative which started U.S. bomb research; 2) it was his equation (E = mc2) which made the atomic bomb theoretically possible.

His work was so entwined with the development of nuclear weapons that Time featured a picture of Einstein on their July 1946 cover, in front of an explosion with the equation “E=mc²” written in the mushroom cloud, according to Evon.

Einstein was, in other words, well aware of how nuclear weapons could affect the world. However, although he did repeatedly warn the world about the dangers of nuclear weapons, this quote doesn’t appear to be an exact record of the physicist’s words and even the earliest records appear to be anecdotal. In March 1947, reports appeared about an exchange that Einstein reportedly had with a group of friends at a dinner party:

Professor Albert Einstein was asked by friends at a recent dinner party what new weapons might be employed in World War III. Appalled at the implications, he shook his head.

After several minutes of meditation, he said. “I don’t know what weapons might be used in World War III. But there isn’t any doubt what weapons will be used in World War IV.”

“And what are those?” a guest asked.

“Stone spears,” said Einstein.

Although these reports appear to be more anecdotal than factual, an account of Einstein saying something similar is reportedly documented in the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1949, Liberal Judaism published an interview entitled “Einstein at 70” between Einstein and his contemporary Alfred Werner, which purportedly contains a similar exchange.

Even if Einstein expressed this exact sentiment, he was not the first to do so. In September 1946, more than six months before the quote was first attributed to Einstein, a reporter attributed this quip to an unnamed Army lieutenant.

Joe Laitin reports that reporters at Bikini were questioning an Army Lt. about what weapons would be used in the next war. I dunno, he said, but in the war after the next war, sure as hell, they’ll be using spears!

Einstein may have been paraphrasing something he had heard earlier during his interview with Werner—or this may simply be an anecdote relaying the physicist’s attitude toward nuclear weapons. Einstein was, after all, a signatory on the Russel-Einstein Manifesto, which warned about the potentially world-altering devastation of nuclear weaponry:

It is stated on very good authority that a bomb can now be manufactured which will be 2,500 times as powerful as that which destroyed Hiroshima.

Such a bomb, if exploded near the ground or underwater, sends radio-active particles into the upper air. They sink gradually and reach the surface of the earth in the form of deadly dust or rain. It was this dust which infected the Japanese fishermen and their catch of fish.

No one knows how widely such lethal radio-active particles might be diffused, but the best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race.

We found several other instances of people making similar statements at around the same time, indicating that this was a popular opinion at that time that was evidently shared by Albert Einstein.

However, we have been unable to find a direct quote from the physicist that matches this particular meme.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)