Responsibility

Among Einstein's most fervent ideas and opinions is that human beings must accept responsibility for their lives. Writing primarily in the period between world wars and to a lesser extent in the aftermath of World War II, he puts little trust or hope in nation states, which inevitably push their populations towards war. Einstein explicitly holds the entire German people responsible for Nazism, because they elect Adolf Hitler chancellor even though his book, Mein Kampf, and campaign speeches make crystal clear the inhuman course he intends to take. Between wars, he calls on Jews around the world to rally behind the Zionist colonizing of Palestine, seeing it partially as a means for Jews to escape Hitler but also as a means of reuniting and reinvigorating the Jewish people behind a positive project. He praises above all heroes of World War I battlefields, the conscientious objectors who refuse to...