Einstein & Oppenheimer:
O Brave, New, and Scientifically Deadly World
Without a doubt, two of the greatest minds of the 20th century were Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Why is it then that in the 21st century only one of these two Titans of intellectual genius has become a household name loved the world over while the other remains almost completely unknown by most of today’s populace? Added to that, those choice few who actually are familiar with both men consider the more obscure of the two to be an influence on modern society worse than Hitler and Stalin combined?
Strangely enough, the name of one genius has become synonymous with being well…a genius while the other’s name has become interchangeable with Death and yes, Evil personified.
Fascinatingly, modern society’s love of one half of this notorious pair and its revulsion of the other can be boiled down to the same foundational source, since both men are seen as bringing about one of the most profound forces of societal change in the history of Man.
Both Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer are attributed with ushering in the Atomic Age.
But where the Piscean scientist’s theories of relativity are the root sources behind this force of global change intellectually, it was the Arien scientist’s conscious and deliberate actions which caused humanity’s world as we once knew it to be forever altered.
The year was 1938 and German scientists had newly discovered “Fission”, a chain reactive process which occurs when the nucleus of an atom breaks into two equal fragments releasing massive amounts of energy in just a millionth of a second.
Being born beneath the sign known for its futuristic vision, the Hungarian physicist and Aquarian, Leo Szilard, foresaw that it wouldn’t be long before Nazi Germany would have nuclear and atomic weapons to wield upon the world.
Szilard hurriedly drafted a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt alerting him of the matter as well as urging the American government to enter the arms race with the intent of developing nuclear weapons of mass destruction before the Germans.
Realizing he didn’t have much influential pull to grab President Roosevelt’s immediate attention, Szilard asked his old friend Albert Einstein for assistance.
Displaying behavior indicative of the sign of unconditional love and spirituality he was born under, Einstein the Pisces was an adamant pacifist but upon reading Szilard’s letter muttered aloud, “I had not thought of that.”
Going against his staunch pacifist tendencies with the belief more lives would be saved if the Americans won the race for dominance over nuclear technology, Albert Einstein signed his name to the letter which in effect gave the green light for the Pandora’s Box of modern times to be ripped wide open, with a non-existent option of ever being re-shut.
Like Szilard, the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was also born beneath the forward thinking sign of Aquarius. FDR couldn’t grasp the technological details discussed in the document which came to be known as “The Einstein- Szilard Letter” however America’s leader possessed the Aquarian foresight to ascertain the alarming rationale behind the scientists’ urgent request for the United States to take immediate action.
Thus, The Manhattan Project began.
From 1939-1945, the United States hired scores of thousands of people in various points all over the country, spending over 2 B-illion dollars (which equates to roughly $23 billion in the 21st century) for one of the costliest of covert government undertakings in American History. This top secret operation was the American race to develop, test, and utilitze Atomic weapons and was nebulously dubbed, “The Manhattan Project”.
Since Albert Einstein had made the initial request which urged the U.S. to build these weapons of mass destruction, FDR assumed that the greatest mind of his generation would naturally head this massive undertaking that was unlike anything before or since.
To which the Piscean pacifist wholeheartedly refused, declining to assist in any part of the actual materialization of a weapon so threatening to humanity at large.
The next choice was a scientist born on the Aries/Taurus cusp named J. Robert Oppenheimer.
When a person is born during the cusp of one Zodiacal sign ending and another beginning, their personality will more than likely display particular traits from both signs which their date of birth borders. Not so with Oppenheimer, the man’s actions were thoroughly and utterly Ram charged.
For Aries example, some of the top military commanders involved with the Manhattan Project had serious reservations with Oppenheimer heading the venture due to his lack of not having been awarded a Nobel Prize in any of the Sciences, as Einstein was for Physics in 1921.
And the reason for this notable absence of scientific recognition? The curse of every Cardinal sign – lack of follow through to completion. The Cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn may be inherently good at starting things but having the follow through to see the things which they start so well reach full completion is one of their biggest challenges.
To quote Wikipedia: “Because his scientific attentions often changed rapidly, he (Oppenheimer) never worked long enough on any one topic and carried it to fruition to merit the Nobel Prize.”
Added to that, Oppenheimer’s scientific specialty was in theoretical physics. Why theoretical versus working hands on in the scientific laboratory? The curse of the Mars ruled, whose bodies will sometimes go way ahead of their thinking minds causing them to fall/crash/walk into such random things as walls, trees, flag poles, along with any/all size and variation of Bunsen burner. Said another way, the intellectual genius displayed behavior that was indicative of his Mars ruled, action oriented, astrological foundation.
The man was a total klutz.
To quote Wikipedia once again: “Oppenheimer’s clumsiness in the laboratory made it apparent his forte was not experimental but rather theoretical physics.”
Arien character flaws aside, the sign of the Ram functions best while in action. Should the Aries be in top form while performing those actions, one of the strongest character traits associated with the first sign of all the Zodiac presents itself soon thereafter – leadership.
J. Robert Oppenheimer led a government project which at the height of its production employed over 130,000 people and spanned over 30 locations in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain.
The Aries’ incessantly active, hands-on leadership became a source of inspiration to anyone whose efforts were involved with this costliest of government ventures. The Fire signed leader’s actions literally motivated those whom he supervised to stay as actively in motion as possible.
In the words of the The Manhattan Project’s Theoretical Group leader, Victor Weisskopf:
“It was his continuous and intense presence, which produced a sense of direct participation in all of us; it created that unique atmosphere of enthusiasm and challenge that pervaded the place throughout its time.”
Oppenheimer became so actively involved overseeing the covert government venture, the Aries was taken aback with the realization that his projected goals had come to actual fruition when the world’s first atomic bombs were completed and finalized.
The man sensed his creations had not only changed the world of Science but the world at large, as well.
This intense realization was evident during the testing of the atomic bomb prototype which occurred in Los Alamos, New Mexico in July of 1945. When the atmosphere went completely dark and the nuclear mushroom cloud showed itself for the first time in Man’s history in a hue of the most brilliant scarlet, its creator was known to have directly quoted the Bhagavad-Gita, an epic collection of ancient Hindu scripture when J. Robert Oppenheimer said aloud:
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
After the successful completion of nuclear testing at Los Alamos, Oppenheimer and the near total majority of scientists involved with the massive undertaking assumed the United States would be displaying their newly completed product before its enemies in order to give them a presentation of the most threatening kind which would, in all likelihood result in the War coming to an immediate end.
This, most unfortunately, would not be the case.
When arriving at the shocking realization that the fruits of his countless Arien labors were actually going to be put in full scale use against the enemy rather than merely as a display of potential threat, Oppenheimer went to the top military commanders to protest – all in vain.
The end results of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s leadership and genius did indeed come to full fruition respectively on the 6th and 9th of August, 1945.
The first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan at 8:15 AM on the morning of August the 6th and by 8:16 AM, 66,000 people were dead and 69,000 injured by the 10-kiloton atomic explosion.
This was followed 3 days later on the morning of August 9th when the 2nd atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11AM and by 11:01AM the city’s population had dropped from 422,000 to 383,000.
Despite the Piscean pacifist initially calling for the creation of these weapons of mass destruction, Albert Einstein was known to have said that his only regret in life was signing the letter which eventually found its way to the oval office of President Roosevelt.
Even though the Arien scientist successfully completed his first of a kind goals that were like none ever before conceived, J. Robert Oppenheimer eventually reached the same humanitarian conclusion as Einstein by ceaselessly voicing for the control of nuclear power and the end of nuclear proliferation during the remaining years of his life following the War.
Despite his name becoming synonymous with Mankind’s first weapons of mass destruction, your Author, for one, finds it truly regrettable that the name of J. Robert Oppenheimer will be forever vilified, all because the Aries was being his true astrological self at the height of his active powers. Hence, the highlighted words of Aries influence listed below from Wikipedia.org:
“The massive destruction the bombs inflicted troubled Oppenheimer. He had been so caught up in the challenge of creating something new and the competition between the U.S. and Germany that he – and many of the other scientists working on the project – had not considered the human toll that would be caused by these bombs. After the end of World War II, Oppenheimer began to voice his opposition to creating more atomic bombs and specifically opposed developing a more powerful bomb using hydrogen (the H-bomb).”
In this post-Atomic Age, society must be cognizant of the fact it is comprised of human beings, creatures that are powerful but at the same time juxtaposingly vulnerable and fallible as well.
Arthur Galston, the inventor of Agent Orange, spoke of the duality behind the power of human scientific invention when he said the following:
“Nothing one does in science is guaranteed to result in benefits for mankind. Any discovery, I believe, is morally neutral and it can be turned either to constructive ends or destructive ends. That’s not the fault of Science.”
But doesn’t Science fall beneath the domain of human creation?
The question begged by many is that if Oppenheimer hadn’t created the Atomic Bomb, then someone else, most likely on the other side of the battle fence would have done so soon there afterwards. This immediately brings to mind a quote from the brilliant German chemist, Fritz Haber, who said:
“A scientist should serve Mankind in times of Peace, but the Fatherland in times of War.”
In a twist of the cruelest irony, Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of chemical fertilizer which has allowed crops to exponentially grow and feeds the world to this day. At the time of receiving his Nobel Prize however, Haber was busy overseeing the hands-on implementation of his other creation, the utilization of chlorine and other poisonous chemicals which formed the basis of gas warfare during World War I and was the foundation of Zyklon B, the lethal gas used in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Like Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, Fritz Haber was of German Jewish extraction.
The Atomic Age is considered to be the official marker when the world became “modern”, for better or worse. May society keep in mind that as a collective whole, we continue to be human beings as the future unfolds within this brave, new, and scientifically deadly world.
A photo of the Nagasaki bombing taken 6 minutes after hitting the city from 6 miles away by Hiromichi Matsuda. Note the unsuspecting people chatting on the right hand side.
Three year old Shinichi Tetsutani’s most prized possession was his red handled tricycle. Little “Shin” always seemed to be riding his trike as was the case on the morning of August 6th, 1945, when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. His body was found still holding the bike’s handlebars. Shin’s father donated the tricycle to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and a children’s book entitled “Shin’s Tricycle” was written by Tatsuharu Kodama in 1995.
Even after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Americans still had no idea about the deadly health hazards associated with nuclear technology. Instead, the United States garishly displayed its atomic dominance through such folly as the “Miss Atomic Bomb” contest, as shown in this photo with its winner, Linda Lawson, in Las Vegas of 1955. Note the mushroom clouded crown.
*Brad Kronen’s book “Love in the Stars” published by Llewellyn Worldwide, Inc. is available for purchase at your local book seller or online at amazon.com at the link listed below.