At our moment of Earthfolk insight two iconic
images flashed before us: the Mushroom Cloud
and the militarized Starship Earth. They have never
left us. For they bracketed what we immediately sensed was the foreboding
vision of the Dark Age that began on August
6, 1945. Ominously, we realized that the blazing, super-brillant brightness
of the Mushroom Cloud had actually cloaked the Living Earth in a shroud
of darkness.
"Shroud of darkness?"
Most of us had been raised terrified but inspired by
the atomic bomb.
It evidenced ultimate human power—nuclear
scientists molded with the
atomic building blocks of life, itself!
We accepted that the atom bomb indicated that
humankind was "progressing," shedding
ever more light on the
mysteries of life.
For some the discovery and use of nuclear energy marked an
evolutionary milestone.
Few of us ever heard
anyone talk about the bomb issuing in an age of darkness.
But now with sojourning alien eyes we realized how
deeply and profoundly nuclear war had
radically altered the human mind, heart and
imagination.
Whereas pre-bomb modern war weaponry
blew people to bits,
a nuclear bomb actually vaporized a person
—Poof!—
it destroyed
every
semblance, whiff, scent, breath, sound, etc., of a
person, in short,
it effected intimate destruction.
Why?
Continue—Background
