Source: https://codoh.com/library/document/6743/?lang=en
By John Wear
Published:
2019-06-03
In 1999 Albert Einstein was named Time
Magazine’s person of the 20th century.[1] This article will discuss whether
Einstein deserved this award.
Physicist
Albert Einstein is regarded by
many people as the greatest physicist of the 20th century.[2] His unique
contributions are said to have revolutionized physics.
However, many physicists
dispute the revolutionary nature of Einstein’s discoveries. Physicist Frank J.
Tipler writes:
Most physicists now recognize that Einstein’s theory
of relativity is not a revolutionary theory at all but a completion of
classical physics. Einstein's most subtle biographer, Abraham Pais, has
conceded this, but also maintained that Einstein's invention of quantum
mechanics, in his 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect, was still
revolutionary.
I disagree. Einstein’s invention of quantum mechanics
was, once again, a conservative innovation – conservative in the traditional
sense of preserving the classical structure of Newtonian physics.”[3]
Christopher Jon Bjerknes
accuses Einstein of plagiarism. Bjerknes writes:
Many people knew that Einstein did not hold priority
for much of what he wrote. He, himself, was keenly aware of it. It is not
uncommon for grandiose myths to accrue to overly idealized popular figures,
such as Albert Einstein. Theoretical Physics, as a field, was small, and not
well known in the period from 1905-1919. Theoretical physicists were not well
known, and, since those in the field knew that Einstein was a plagiarist, they
largely ignored him…
Einstein evinced a career-long pattern of publishing
“novel” theories and formulae after others had already published similar words,
then claimed priority for himself. He did it with E = mc². He did it with the
so-called special theory of relativity and he did it with the general theory of
relativity.[4]
While I don’t understand
physics well enough to know if Bjerknes’s analysis is accurate, it is certain
that many physicists had little regard for Einstein in his later years. Robert
Oppenheimer, for example, visited the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton
in January 1935. In a letter to his brother Frank, Oppenheimer conveyed his
reaction to the occupants of Fine Hall at Princeton: “Princeton is a madhouse:
its solipsistic luminaries shining in separate & helpless desolation.
Einstein is completely cuckoo…”[5]
Oppenheimer also said in
private that Einstein had no understanding of or interest in modern physics,
and that Einstein had been wasting his time trying to unify gravitation and
electromagnetism.[6]
Physicist Freeman Dyson was a
colleague of Einstein’s from 1948 to 1955 at the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton. Dyson had a strong desire to meet and know Einstein when he
arrived at the Institute. However, after reading Einstein’s recent scientific
papers, Dyson decided they were junk. Dyson spent the next seven years avoiding
Einstein so that he would not have to tell Einstein his work was junk.[7]
Physicist David Bodanis writes
about Einstein’s later years: “Einstein’s peers regarded him as a has-been.
Even many of his closest friends no longer took his ideas seriously.[8]
Einstein Supported Zionism
In an article published in the
November 26, 1938 edition of Collier’s magazine, Albert Einstein
explained how the social creed and morality inbred in most Jews, which he
attempted to live by, was part of a long and proud tradition. Einstein wrote:
“The bond that has united the Jews for thousands of years and that unites them
today is, above all, the democratic ideal of social justice coupled with the
ideal of mutual aid and tolerance among all men.”[9] Einstein later wrote that Karl Marx lived
and sacrificed himself for the ideal of social justice.[10]
Einstein wrote about the
Jewish tradition: “The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost
fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence – these are
the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong
to it.”[11]
Einstein came to embrace the
cause of Zionism. He wrote to a friend in October 1919: “One can be an
internationalist without being indifferent to members of one’s tribe. The
Zionist cause is very close to my heart…I am glad that there should be a little
patch of earth on which our kindred brethren are not considered aliens.”
Einstein further declared: “I am, as a human being, an opponent of nationalism.
But as a Jew, I am from today a supporter of the Zionist effort.”[12]
Einstein worked hard to
promote Zionism and to establish the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He wrote
to German/Jewish chemist Fritz Haber:
Despite my emphatic internationalist beliefs, I have
always felt an obligation to stand up for my persecuted and morally oppressed
tribal companions. The prospect of establishing a Jewish university fills me
with particular joy, having recently seen countless instances of perfidious and
uncharitable treatment of splendid young Jews with attempts to deny their
chances of education.[13]
Einstein traveled to America,
Singapore and other places to help secure funding for Hebrew University.[14]
Einstein was an enthusiastic
supporter of Israel. He wrote after Israel was founded:
In this hour one thing, above all, must be emphasized:
Judaism owes a great debt of gratitude to Zionism. The Zionist movement has
revived among Jews the sense of community. It has performed productive work
surpassing all the expectations any one could entertain. This productive work
in Palestine, to which self-sacrificing Jews throughout the world have
contributed, has saved a large number of our brethren from direct need. In
particular, it has been possible to lead a not inconsiderable part of our youth
toward a life of joyous and creative work.
Now the fateful disease of our time – exaggerated
nationalism, borne up by blind hatred – has brought our work to a most
difficult stage. Fields cultivated by day must have armed protection at night
against fanatical Arab outlaws. All economic life suffers from insecurity.[15]
Einstein ignored in this
writing that Israel was formed through the ethnic cleaning of approximately
750,000 Palestinians who were ruthlessly expelled from their homes. Entire
cities and hundreds of villages in Israel were left empty and repopulated with
new Jewish immigrants. The Palestinians lost everything they had and became
destitute refugees, while the Jewish immigrants stole the Palestinians’
property and confiscated everything they needed.[16] This is why the “fanatical Arab outlaws”
Einstein referred to arose to counteract these illegal Zionist actions.
Einstein also praised the
great and lasting contributions of Rabbi Stephen Wise to the cause of Zionism.
Einstein wrote about Wise: “There are those who do not love him, but there is
no one who has ever denied him recognition and respect, for everybody knows
that behind the enormous labors of this man there has always been the
passionate desire to make mankind better and happier.”[17]
Einstein was even invited by
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on November 16, 1952 to become
President of Israel if elected by the Parliament. Einstein turned down this
offer because the Presidential office required an understanding of human
relations – something Einstein felt he was deficient in. Einstein wanted to
deal only with science and nature.[18]
Einstein Hated Germans
Albert Einstein hated the
German people. Einstein wrote to an old Jewish friend in the summer of 1942:
“Due to their wretched traditions the Germans are such a badly messed-up people
that it will be very difficult to remedy the situation by sensible, not to
speak of humane, means. I keep hoping that at the end of the war, with God’s
benevolent help, they will largely kill each other off.”[19]
In a tribute “To the Heroes of
the Warsaw Ghetto,” Einstein wrote in 1944 that the Germans “deliberately used
the humanity of others to make preparation for their last and most grievous
crime against humanity.” Einstein held the German people responsible for
electing Adolf Hitler and acquiescing in what Einstein felt was Hitler’s
unutterable crimes. He could not find forgiveness in his heart for such
“calculated moral degradation.”[20]
Einstein believed in the
official Holocaust story[21],
and his hatred of Germans continued after the war. Jamie Sayen writes:
Personally, he could not bring himself to forgive the
Germans for the crimes of the Nazis and he rejected all reconciliatory efforts.
In 1951 President Theodor Heuss of the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) invited Einstein to join the Peace Section of the old Prussian order
Pour le mérite. Einstein had been a member prior to 1933 but, in accordance
with his postwar refusal to be associated publicly with any German organization
he declined Heuss’s invitation. “Because of the mass murder which the Germans
inflicted upon the Jewish people,” he explained, “it is evident that a
self-respecting Jew could not possibly wish to be associated in any way with
any official German institution.”[22]
Einstein was convinced that
militarism was so deeply ingrained in the spirit of the German people that
world peace was not possible while Germany possessed an army. He thought the
Germans could not learn through experience because they always managed to
rationalize their failures with irrational explanations. Einstein warned a
woman about Germans after the war: “You will find them affable, intelligent,
and they will seem to agree with you, but you must not believe a one of them.”[23]
Einstein supported the
Morgenthau Plan and wanted to see Germany transformed from an industrial nation
into an agricultural country. He wrote to his Jewish friend James Franck: “I am
firmly convinced that it is absolutely indispensable to prevent the restoration
of German industrial power for many years…I firmly object to any attempt from
Jewish quarters to reawaken the kind of soft sentimental feelings which
permitted Germany to prepare a war of aggression without any interference on
the part of the rest of the world – and this long before the Nazis came to
power…”[24]
Einstein would not even permit
his books to be sold in Germany after the war. Einstein wrote to German chemist
Otto Hahn: “The crimes of the Germans are really the most abominable ever to be
recorded in the history of the so-called civilized nations. The conduct of the
German intellectuals – viewed as a class – was no better than that of the mob.”[25] Einstein also
protested the American use of German scientists after the war to help in the
“war on communism.”[26]
Einstein’s national and tribal
kinship became starkly clear in his own mind as World War II ended. He wrote:
“I am not a German but a Jew by nationality.”[27] In a letter dated October 12, 1953 to
Jewish physicist Max Born, Einstein referred to Germany as the “land of the
mass-murderers of our kinsmen.”[28]
This was Einstein’s opinion, and he never deviated from it.[29]
Alleged Pacifist
Albert Einstein decided to
live in the United States and not return to Germany after Hitler obtained
power. He said in a widely reported public statement: “As long as I have any
choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty,
tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail…These conditions
do not exist in Germany at the present time.”[30]
Einstein felt close to the
American Friends of Peace and regarded himself as a pacifist. However, his
emphasis shifted toward ensuring peace “through the creation of an
international organization embracing all major states…with a sufficiently
strong executive power at its disposal.” Einstein thought a world government
was the best defense against fascism.[31]
Einstein’s deep distrust of
Germany caused him to forsake his alleged pacifism. Jürgen Neffe writes:
He imagined the country “Barbaria” capable of
anything. A “uranium bomb” in the hands of Germans would be like an “axe in the
hands of a pathological criminal.” He had not forgotten how consistently the
Germans had adapted scientific achievements in employing poison gas for
military purposes in World War I under the leadership of his friend Fritz
Haber. He declared on the spot that he was prepared to go to the top level of
the administration to warn of the danger.[32]
Einstein wrote a letter in
conjunction with physicists Edward Teller and Leo Szilard that President
Roosevelt received on October 3, 1939. This letter warned of the possibility
that an atomic bomb using uranium might be built. On March 7, 1940, Einstein
followed up with a more-urgent second letter to Roosevelt which stated: “Since
the outbreak of war, interest in uranium has intensified in Germany. I have now
learned that research there is carried out in great secrecy and that it has
been extended to another of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, the Institute of
Physics.”[33]
The fact that two atomic bombs
later hit Japan and not Germany was in Einstein’s view a great catastrophe.
Germany was the only country against which Einstein would have condoned using
the atomic bomb. Any degree of force was acceptable to Einstein to defeat
Germany--even the atomic bomb, even war to achieve peace. After Germany’s
defeat, which Einstein regarded as a necessary conquest of the Germans
collectively embroiled in guilt, the use of the atomic bomb was no longer justified.[34]
Einstein returned to his
alleged pacifism after World War II. Since the only justifiable war – the one
against the Nazis – had ended, Einstein felt obliged more than ever to voice
his advocacy for world peace.[35]
Conclusion
Einstein was selected as Time
magazine’s person of the 20th century primarily because of his
contributions to physics early in his career.[36] Many physicists, however, had little
regard for Einstein as a physicist in the later part of his career. Also,
several quantum physicists made major contributions to the advancement of
physics and were as qualified as Einstein to be selected for Time magazine’s
award.
Einstein made repeated racist
statements about Germans while extolling the virtues of his Jewish tribe. With
the exception of a few German scientists, Einstein considered all non-Jewish
Germans to be a bad breed and referred to Germans as “the blond beast.”[37] Einstein had
hoped at the end of World War II that the Germans, with God’s benevolent help,
would largely kill each other off. Einstein’s statements about Germans were
deeply racist, yet Time magazine ignored Einstein’s racism and chose him
to be its person of the 20th century.
Albert Einstein did not
deserve Time Magazine’s award. The mass media has promoted Einstein into
an almost God-like figure. Christopher Jon Bjerknes writes:
It appears that the physics community and the media invented
a comic book figure, “Einstein”, with “E=mc²” stenciled across his chest. The
media and educational institutions portray this surreal and farcical image as a
benevolent god to watch over us…
To question “Einstein”, the god, either “his”
theories, or the priority of the thoughts he repeated, has become the sin of
heresy. “His” writings are synonymous with truth, the undecipherable truth of a
god hung on the wall as a symbol of ultimate truth, which truth is elusive to
mortal man – no one is to understand or to question the arcana of “Einstein”,
but must let the shepherd lead his flock, without objection. Do not bother the
believers with the facts![38]
Notes
[1] Lacayo, Richard, Albert Einstein: The
Enduring Legacy of a Modern Genius, New York: Time Home Entertainment,
2011, p. 8.
[2] Fölsing, Albrecht, Albert Einstein: A Biography,
New York: Viking, 1997, p. xi.
[3] Brockman, John (editor), My Einstein: Essays by
Twenty-four of the World’s Leading Thinkers on the Man, His Work, and His
Legacy, New York: Pantheon Books, 2006, p. 80.
[4] Bjerknes, Christopher Jon, Albert Einstein: The
Incorrigible Plagiarist, Downers Grove, Ill.: XTX Inc., 2002, pp.
158, 234.
[5] Schweber, Silvan S., Einstein & Oppenheimer:
The Meaning of Genius, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008, p.
265.
[6] Ibid., p. 276.
[7] Brockman, John (editor), My Einstein: Essays by
Twenty-four of the World’s Leading Thinkers on the Man, His Work, and His
Legacy, New York: Pantheon Books, 2006, pp. 110-111.
[8] Bodanis, David, Einstein’s Greatest Mistake: A
Biography, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, p. xii.
[9] Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, pp. 445, 624.
[10] Einstein, Albert, Out of My Later Years, New
York: Philosophical Library, 1950, p. 249.
[11] Einstein, Albert, The World as I See It, New
York: Citadel Press, 1984, p. 90.
[12] Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, p. 282.
[13] Ibid., p. 292.
[14] Ibid., pp. 293, 306.
[15] Einstein, Albert, Out of My Later Years, New
York: Philosophical Library, 1950, pp. 262-263.
[16] Segev, Tom, The Seventh Million: The Israelis and
the Holocaust, New York: Hill and Wang, 1993, pp. 161-162.
[17] Ibid., p. 271.
[18] Holton, Gerald and Elkana, Yehuda (editors), Albert
Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1982, pp. 294-295.
[19] Sayen, Jamie, Einstein in America: The Scientist’s
Conscience in the Age of Hitler and Hiroshima, New York: Crown Publishers,
Inc., 1985, pp. 145-146.
[20] Ibid., p. 146.
[21] Einstein, Albert, Out of My Later Years, New
York: Philosophical Library, 1950, pp. 201-202.
[22] Sayen, Jamie, Einstein in America: The Scientist’s
Conscience in the Age of Hitler and Hiroshima, New York: Crown Publishers,
Inc., 1985, p. 146.
[23] Ibid., p. 188.
[24] Clark, Ronald W., Einstein: The Life and Times,
New York and Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1971, p. 601.
[25] Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, p. 506.
[26] Jerome, Fred and Taylor, Rodger, Einstein on
Race and Racism, New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press, 2005, p.
105.
[27] Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, p. 506.
[28] Born, Max, The Born-Einstein Letters, New
York: Walker and Company, 1971, p. 199.
[29] Ibid., p. 200.
[30] Fölsing, Albrecht, Albert Einstein: A Biography,
New York: Viking, 1997, p. 659.
[31] Ibid., pp. 683-684.
[32] Neffe, Jürgen, Einstein: A Biography, New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, p. 379.
[33] Ibid., p. 380.
[34] Ibid., pp. 384, 387.
[35] Ibid., p. 389.
[36] Lacayo, Richard, Albert Einstein: The
Enduring Legacy of a Modern Genius, New York: Time Home Entertainment,
2011, pp. 8-9.
[37] Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, p. 409.
[38] Bjerknes, Christopher Jon, Albert Einstein: The
Incorrigible Plagiarist, Downers Grove, Ill.: XTX Inc., 2002, pp.
161-162.
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