Hot and Thirsty — Image by kenne
Nature is neutral.
Man has wrested from nature
the power to make the world
a desert or to make the deserts bloom.
There is no evil in the atom;
only in men’s souls.
— Adlai E. Stevenson
Related articles
- Spiritual Desert (hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com)
- A man ahead of his times…Adlai Stevenson (wilsonwyattjr.com)
I absolutely agree with the general spirit of the sentiment. Who wouldn’t? And yet I can’t help resisting it some, too. There are objects in the world, neutral as they may be on all levels, that simply entice the evil in men’s souls too effectively–incredibly devastating weapons that are easy to use come to mind. Compare a hair-triggered, fully-belted, swivel-mounted M-60 beside a buttercup in bloom in the grass and I might make a distinction about which of these otherwise neutral things on a subatomic level have the greater capacity to rent their interior real estate to evil.
The thing I like about the Stevenson quote is that it causes some, like yourself, to give thought to the words and respond with an understanding that improves on his concept. Thanks for the comment.