The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men
We must realize that we cannot simultaneously plan for war and peace
Speaking to the New York Times in 1946 about the atomic bomb and the threat of the end of the world, Albert Einstein offered his solution for saving the human race —
“A new kind of thinking is required if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels.”
This is the evolutionary process of adapting to new conditions, he explained, before carrying on to say that “we must abandon competition and secure cooperation. This must be the central fact in all our considerations of international affairs; otherwise we face certain disaster. Past thinking and methods did not prevent world wars. Future thinking must prevent wars.”
You’ve heard a version of his quote many times: “The problem will not be solved by the same mind that created it.”
It is an easy sentiment to embrace, but a harder one to put into practice. Yes, we need to think differently. Yes, we cannot approach our problems from the same level of thinking that created them. And, yes, this is not entirely straightforward to do.
How do we change our minds so that we can move to “higher levels?”
Einstein tells us that we must stop giving power to the fear. “I do not believe that we can prepare for war and at the same time prepare for a world community,” he writes. “When humanity holds in its hand the weapon with which it can commit suicide, I believe that to put more power into the gun is to increase the probability of disaster.”
Yet putting more power into the gun is nearly all we do. Recent news headlines would suggest that dystopia is entirely certain. Why even bother to try and change anything?
A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Tech Leaders Warn
Climate researchers say 7 of 8 safety limits have been breached
Uruguay, hot and dry, adds salt water to public drinking supply
Los Angeles approves $278,000 robot police dog despite ‘grave concerns’
Everywhere you turn, reports and analysis on the symptoms and not the solutions. We watch AI and climate chaos barrel away like runaway trains, taking little to no responsibility for the fact that we laid the tracks and we built the carriages and we fed the engines.
We give power to the gun, again and again, forgetting that we are the hand that chooses whether or not to pull the trigger. We act as if our problems aren’t born out of the human imagination, birthed out of human hearts and minds. We keep pointing at the symptoms, shrieking, forgetting that we are the root of the problem.
AI is the perfect example of this. Why do we keep treating computer technology like it is some sort of God, going so far as to claim that it created us?
How quickly we externalize our power. How quickly we hand over responsibility.
Einstein wrote, “Science has brought forth this danger, but the real problem is in the hearts and minds of men.”
It’s us. We’re the problem. The hearts and minds of men are at the root of the climate crisis. The hearts and minds of men are behind AI’s “threat against humanity.” We did this. We got us here. We are responsible.
So what’s the solution?
“We will not change the hearts of men by other mechanisms, but by changing our hearts and speaking bravely.” This is Einstein’s solution: individual, heart-centred change and speaking our truth.
He advocates for this alongside strong suggestions of law and order via world government — a global initiative that could work if enough individuals with clear hearts and minds arrange it.
If that is our solution, how do we get there? What does changing a heart look like?
We must give up the fear of the end of the world. By fixating on the problems we can almost guarantee the end of humanity. We must remember that the world has ended before — for countless species and cultures and civilizations. We must accept that a version of our world is ending, that a paradigm is crumbling, but with this ending comes a new beginning and with this crumbling we can choose to release the fear.
We must stop putting power in the gun. Once we release the weapon from our hands, we regain our autonomy and sovereignty. Then what worlds will we build? What can we not even conceive of now because we are clutching onto fear so tightly?
“We cannot simultaneously plan for war and peace. When we are clear in heart and mind—only then shall we find courage to surmount the fear which haunts the world.”
Einstein could not have be more clear. The problem will not be solved by the same mind — or heart — that created it. That means it is up to each of us to speak bravely, to get clear in our hearts and minds, to overcome the fear, and to remember that the power is, and always has been, in our hands.
Read: The Real Problem is in the Hearts of Men, Albert Einstein. NYT, 1946.
I needed this reminder, thank you <3