Pentimento

Female Voice: Shortly before his death, Einstein raised his voice for the last time to tell the world of the tragedy of a modern scientist. This was his testament: "The fate of a modern scientist is tragic. His inspiration leads him to clarity and inner independence. By almost superhuman efforts he had forged a weapon of his own social enslavement and destruction of his personality. The situation even reached a point where the political authorities had muzzled him. Has the time really passed when the scientist's intellectual freedom and independent research could enlighten and enrich people's lives? Has he forgotten, in his blind quest for the scientific truth, about his moral responsibility before humanity and about his honour? Our world is under threat of a crisis the scope of which seems not to be realized by those in authority. The released power of the atom changed everything but our way of thinking, and thus we keep sliding down to a catastrophe never seen heretofore. For the mankind to survive, we have to learn to think in a new way. The most difficult task of our time is to avert this threat. At this decisive moment, I'll be appealing to you with all my feeble capacity."