Transcribing the Past

Abolish Wage Labor Capital allows us only one kind of productive activity: wage-earning people have to be broken in for years before they are willing to accept the loss of 1/3 of their time to working, not to mention the other 2/3 of their time which is spent recuperating from work. Ideologists maintain that work is necessary, because they equate commodity-production with social wealth. But nowadays being rich doesn’t necessarily mean that you lead an exciting life; it just means that you own a lot of objects. Society leads proletarians to believe that, if they work hard enough, they can lead this mythical “good life,” thereby condemning them to mind-numbing work at some idiotic activity with the goal of obtaining ridiculous objects. All those hours lost on the job, all those unfulfilled desires, and in return, a salary, the reward for having participated in commodity-produciton. And the only thing one can do with this reward is acquire more commodities. A salary gives access o...

  The letter below, sent to the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, was signed by Albert Einstein but was largely written by the Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd. No attempt at original formatting has been made. Albert Einstein Old Grove Rd. Nassau Point Peconic, Long Island August 2nd, 1939 F.D. Roosevelt President of the United States, White House Washington, D.C. Sir: Some recent work by E.Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations: In the course of the last four months it has been made probable – through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard...