Now emerging as the big headache of our times — GOVERNMENT. NATO in trouble; the reunification of Germany again becoming an issue; the developing arms race in the Mideast; Vietnam; the emergence of several new governments each year — the world finds itself with a whole new set of headaches unimagined only a few years ago. What does it all mean? Where is it LEADING? What will be the final solution?
GOVERNMENT is the biggest business on earth. In many nations, the government is the biggest land owner, the biggest employer, the biggest investor, the biggest spender, and has the biggest headache and the biggest hangover. The whole history of man revolves around the attempt of human beings to govern themselves without interference from any outside source. Government implies order. Government means law. But, paradoxically, these tremendous and worthwhile commodities are becoming increasingly sparse in a lawless and chaotic world. Today the greatest attempt of man at world government in all history appears doomed to failure! With the continuing dilution of the United Nations, and the creation of several new nations each year, the world finds itself with a grim new set of problems for which there appear no solutions.
The Problems Labeled "Insoluble."
Strangely, in this world of giant headaches and huge hangovers, the United States and Great Britain seem to automatically inherit all the problems labeled "insoluble" around the world, the biggest and most all-consuming headache facing any government today is how to achieve world peace! Yet no existing government knows! Each new administration in the United States realizes it is saddled with the almost impossible burden of leading all other governments who strive toward peace on earth, the rights of the individual, and the settlement of international disputes through world courts of law. The problems of government today are no longer confined to the domestic considerations of food, shelter and clothing for any given nation. Rather, the governmental system of each nation, no matter how small, has suddenly become the headaches and problems of every other nation, no matter how large! First and foremost, the constant, steady, monotonous increase of population is of the biggest moment, and the utmost concern to all governments on earth today. If there were no hydrogen bombs, no conflicts between the big ideologies, no religious differences, no racial differences, and if there were, in short, NONE of the myriad problems confronting the world today except this single awesome problem, the "population explosion" all by itself would be the most gigantic headache to ever chill the brain of man since Eve beheld the lifeless body of her son Abel lying murdered in the field! And what are the solutions to the population explosion? Leaders in government know the population explosion is not even remotely controllable. If it were, the beginning elements of control would involve massive, worldwide education, complete reversal and modernization of ancient, time-honored religious concepts, the sudden discarding of thousands of weird, superstitious tribal taboos, a total change in the customs of dozens of societies and religions, and a massive, globe-girdling onslaught of scientific and clinical information to the entire population of the world — not to mention the manufacture, distribution, sale, and education in the use of various birth-control measures. Any such program is, of course, utterly and excruciatingly impossible! But the population explosion only implies bigger and more awesome headaches. In direct relationship to the population explosion, and as an immediate result of it, come the awesome, all-consuming, brain-chilling FOOD WARS of the future. Already, the world is being given a faint glimpse of what can happen to the simple, everyday pressure of growing populations with not enough food to eat. The screaming, enraged, rock-throwing crowds of many sections of India today are only the faintest warning of the beginning mutterings of the unsatisfied voices of hundreds of millions of human beings who realize the impending day of their bloated, agonizing, slow-death starvation draws near! But again, the food wars of the future — staggering though they seem — are only a part of the picture. World famine has been predicted, not by religious fanatics, but by steady, sober, serious-minded researchers who have dedicated themselves to painstaking collection of facts and statistics based upon populations plus arable acres minus minimum daily food requirements. And, like it or not, believe it or not, accept it or not — the fact remains the same; worldwide DROUGHT IS fully expected by all experts some time in the early 1970s! Next in the wake of this impending calamity comes mounting disease epidemics! The simple crowding of human beings together, plus the lack of foodstuffs, plus the fights, squabbles, battles and wars — means unparalleled disease. Like the "black death" (bubonic plague) that in many areas swept fully 50 percent of the population of Europe and England from the face of the earth so many centuries ago, the disease epidemics of the future will be so staggering in proportion there does not remain sufficient words in the English language to describe them. All this — and we haven't yet mentioned the hydrogen bomb! But the hydrogen bomb deserves mentioning!
Under The Shadow of the Bomb
With the escalation in the number of members of the "Nuclear Club," the world faces a whole new set of incredible headaches. Recent reports indicate Red China has exploded a hydrogen bomb! Yet, our calloused populaces can scarcely digest this fact, even though the announcement that RUSSIA had exploded a similar device clear back in 1950 so shocked and appalled us we could scarcely believe it at the time. And how delicate, and intricate, are the headaches attendant upon the world pile of H-bombs. To give you even the beginning concept, the bombs on hand in the world today are equal to 100 TRILLION pounds of TNT! Remember, one trillion represents 1,000 BILLION! And a billion is exactly one thousand MILLION! Put in different terms, that means there is enough explosive force represented by pounds of TNT for YOU, as a person, to weigh fully 28,000 pounds! Perhaps a further comparison would shock you even more. There are not enough goods, foods, medicines, books, clothing, or any of the other commodities available which r could be called necessities or luxuries of life to represent 28,000 pounds per person on earth! Truthfully, there is not enough to represent even a substantial fraction of that weight. Yet, as ultimate an irony as it seems, there is at this precise moment (and each day this amount is being increased) more pounds reserved for each human being in terms of total destructive force than are available to him for his own personal use to make life more worthwhile! And the headaches of this atomic age simply defy description. With neighbors who frankly hate each other, differing races, squabbling ideologies, conflicting languages and religions as the potential match to ignite a whole host of future world hot spots, more and more nations find themselves in a position to begin manufacturing atomic and hydrogen bombs. Here's how the problem works!
How More Nations Join the "Atomic Club"
India knows Red China is completing massive troop buildups on the Indian border. India knows Red China has the Atomic Bomb, and possibly the HYDROGEN bomb. That means, in the most urgent considerations of national security, India MUST HAVE THE BOMB! Purely as a DEFENSIVE measure against Red China, of course. But then there's Pakistan! The two Pakistan's, ruptured asunder by the sprawling mass of India, exist as two separate geographical entities, yet one nation, born of violent hatreds between Hindu and Moslem. Should India build the bombs, Pakistanis would turn in desperation to the big powers — they would be FORCED to obtain nuclear weapons! Regardless as to India's claims she might build the bomb in self-defense, Pakistan would live in critical jeopardy every moment she did not build a nuclear force to counterbalance Indian nuclear arms. Here's another part of the throbbing headache of nuclear escalation. Indonesia may build a bomb in a few years. Indonesia hates Malaysia — has sworn to destroy the new federation. Indonesia lays claim to North Borneo, and Sukarno's guerrilla fighters infiltrating into North Borneo from Indonesia caused Britain to send airborne troops to Brunei where crack helicopter patrols still must watch the dangerous jungle border. And what about Cuba? Should Cuba get the bomb — the entirety of Central and South America would tremble in fear. Castro would have achieved a fantastic ideological and propaganda weapon with which to cow and terrorize weak Central American neighbors. The United States would see the immediate spread of Castro-inspired communism into more and more of the Western Hemisphere. And last, but by NO MEANS LEAST, there's Japan! With China possessing the Bomb, does Japan DARE not build one of her own? Japan is the super-giant of the Orient, rising to dizzying heights of economic prosperity. As we have reported in past issues of this magazine, the world is YET to hear of alarming trends in Japan! Japan is the real force and power of the Orient. Make no mistake, the Japanese will not risk their booming industry and thriving economy to potential Red Chinese threat. Japan could join the "nuclear club" any time! What kind of a world will it be — what kind of headaches for government — when up to FORTY NATIONS possess nuclear arms? Think about it. Another of the almost incredible aspects of the problem is that fully 50 percent of all the hydrogen bombs manufactured by the United States are stockpiled in central Europe (primarily West Germany)! If you really know what your Bible says about the future of central Europe, and the soon-coming emergence of a United States of Europe, with a reunified, resurgent Germany at its head, the simple statement that one-half of all United-States-manufactured hydrogen bombs are stockpiled in Germany would sober you to the point of your deepest and most earnest moment of prayer! It is impossible to take further space in this article concerning these MAJOR headaches confronting governments today. Not the next ten full issues of The PLAIN TRUTH with each article concerned primarily with that one problem alone could even begin to cover the subject!
Nuclear Nerves — and International Crises
Even the problems of diplomacy resulting from the stockpiling of H-bombs by the big powers are staggering. For instance, the United States has admitted, thus far, to 14 nuclear weapons accidents! And, in spite of all the reassurances from nuclear physicists concerning the engineering safety of nuclear weapons, no one can guarantee an explosion cannot occur accidentally! As officials have pointed out, so long as it is necessary for America to maintain a nuclear bomber and missile force there will be accidents! One of the most bizarre in all of the history of mankind was the recent accident involving a mid-air collision of American aircraft off Spain. A worldwide furor was touched off as a result of this one case of happenstance. Every last vestige of American technology was employed to recover the nuclear device hanging precariously on a deep undersea canyon off Palomares, Spain. Only the most sophisticated of U.S. undersea exploration devices was able to accomplish the feat! When you realize the "staying" power of the radioactivity of plutonium is almost indescribable — the terrible diplomatic problems come more clearly into focus. For example, the time it takes plutonium to lose half its radioactivity, or its "half-life," is calculated to be 24 thousand years! Theoretically, the traces of the accident in Spain remain, therefore, perpetual! Can anyone safely guarantee there will not be a Russian, French, British, or even a Chinese nuclear weapons accident this year or the next? The incredible headaches of governments over nuclear weapons are simply indescribable! Space technology is yet another fantastic brain-stopper for the leaders of states. Now the biggest single industry in the United States, employing more people than any other part of the economy, the race to the stars has become one of the biggest political headaches of all time. Charges and countercharges of spy satellites, the specter of the approaching moment in world history when Russian cosmonauts will be sitting at the controls of orbiting satellites armed with nuclear weapons; the future possibility of the interruption of ground communications by satellite-borne jamming equipment; these are only a few of the space-age headaches graying the hairs and furrowing the brows of leaders of states today. The whole panorama of this modern space-age technology defies description. The French timetable, calling for nuclear missiles to be operational between 1968 and 1970 — the rumors that Egypt is building a missile through Soviet aid — the fact that India and Pakistan could soon enter the "missile club," the approaching launch of an orbital satellite from Australia, and the first combined European space effort, only adds a few more dazzling problems to the headaches. And so it is that government today is the biggest collection of imagination-defying, description-denying, unbelievable and incredible headaches the world has ever known.
The Dangerous Domestic Dilemmas
Time was when the domestic crises of many a small nation not only escaped the attention of the average citizen in other countries, but couldn't have captured his interest if he heard of it. Today, however, the entire picture has changed. Now the domestic crises of small, forgotten, seemingly unimportant areas of the world are fraught with terrible dangers for the big powers! A coup here, an election there, a riot in some far-off street, a flag or an effigy burning in front of an embassy, these seemingly unimportant domestic crises suddenly appear as the match that could spark nuclear-bomb war! Take a look at the weird, crazy-quilt pattern of domestic crises around the world. The continuing eruptions along the border of Israel and Syria, or Israel and Jordan mean constant nightmares for the big powers. Always apprehensive about the deep hatreds of some of the nations of the Middle East, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and other nations continue to sell arms to these nations in small dribbles, hoping that some sort of precarious balance can be achieved — ever watchful that tiny, spiteful border incidents could erupt into an all-out war in the Middle East. Like a running sore, the deep hatreds between the Pakistanis and the Indians continue to worry the minds of elder statesmen the world over. The continuing threat (though little mentioned in recent news) of Nationalist China versus Red China gives cause for concern. The constant, nagging worry of German reunification has overtones that reach into every vestige of world power politics on a global scale. Ian Smith's white government of Rhodesia, versus the economic sanctions of Great Britain, added to the possible South African reaction mean trouble in that part of the world! The steeping, simmering resentment of the Spanish toward Britain over Gibraltar remains a running sore on the face of the earth — and is a constant source of threats and recriminations in Spanish publications. The tribal hostilities, religious resentments, superstitions and taboos of many of the African nations mean the imminent possibility of war almost anywhere on the African continent. The continuing war on the southern tip of Saudi-Arabia, with Feisal of Saudi-Arabia backing Aden while Nasser continues to support Yemen, means the possibility of yet another war in that part of the world. Vietnam continues to dominate the headlines as a smoldering, heartbreaking, hopeless war which is not even called a war continues in that part of the world. But even all THESE problems are supranational and foreign in nature. The purely internal and domestic crises of dozens of nations are almost beyond belief. The poverty, squalor, filth, degeneracy and illiteracy of much of the world can be understood only if you, as an individual, travel to such areas and see (and smell) conditions for yourself. And even in the affluent nations the disease of "too much" has, taken deep root. Look at the crazed mania of the British to entertain themselves in the face of impending economic and political disaster. Witness the insane urge of the younger generation to reach out and grasp the tattered shreds of a life which seems destined to disappear before it has begun. The evidence is everywhere; in the mounting juvenile crime, wild sexual abandon, growing venereal disease, and toying with hallucinogens and brain-damaging drugs. The boiling, bestial race hatreds running like a riptide of violence through the large cities of the United States are destined, according to nearly every observer, to erupt into full-scale racial war in the very near future. Mounting crime, rising divorce, the bankruptcy of small businesses, the eroding of national morals and principles, the decay of religion, these are all part of the giant headaches inherited by any leader of a large and prosperous state. And, though you might not "like" to believe things are all this "bad," though you might like to HIDE your eyes from the stark TRUTH of these dizzying days of impending disaster, all these problems really DO confront governments of this world today, and not one single one of them seems to have any immediate solution! It is a ridiculous over-simplification of these monumental problems to simply quote "gross national product," employment figures, shorter working hours, more leisure, minimum wages, and better "living conditions" for only a tiny FEW in this poverty-ridden world. Anyone who feels these statements are "sensational" is so utterly out of touch with the brutal reality of world conditions as to appear locked in a mental straitjacket, living in a world of rosy, self-created hallucinations.
Each "New" Government — Attempts Success Where Others Have Failed
The most immediate problems of ANY government are the three basics of life: food, shelter and clothing for the populace of the nation. ALL governments have, while differing greatly in their methods of achieving these things, the same basic goals. They seek to govern their peoples in the particular fashion which that government has deemed most appropriate to give those peoples these basic essentials of life. Government signifies by its very term, LAW and ORDER! Yet, many governments are lawless and chaotic! Governments today represent every extreme from totalitarianism to the "democratic" or republican form of rule by the majority. Time and again — and in many cases in very recent history — nations have wildly supported a new-found champion who promised relief from their misery, higher wages, a burgeoning economy, settlement of all strife and domestic issues, and a place of greater stature in the world — only to find their new-found "Savior" was just a leap from the frying pan into the fire. Witness Cuba with its former government of corruption and police rule; the very epitome of the totalitarian state. After his successful revolution, Fidel Castro began his tireless and endless series of executions, vast reforms, and eloquent promises. With brother Raul and CM Guevara immediately established in dizzying pinnacles of power, the inevitable occurred. The economy began to stagnate, people were living in terrible fear, and all the usual trademarks of the power-drunk dictatorship began to appear: heavy taxation; nationalization of industries, transport and communications; agrarian "reforms;" compulsory military conscription; state control of all education; with increasing hardships and less food for all! And the same pattern is being repeated in many a nation around the world, from Africa to Indonesia and Vietnam; from Uruguay and Guatemala to the Sudan. The plain truth is, NO GOVERNMENT, no, not in the history of the world, has ever brought its people lasting peace, prosperity, and happiness! True, certain governments have succeeded in achieving dizzying military conquests and glamorous economic heights. But each, in its own turn, tottered and toppled, leaving only the splintered shards, ruined buildings and dust-covered monuments to mark its passing. Believe it or not, the problems of government ARE easily understood. And it's exactly as simple as "two plus two equals four." From the time the first men began to organize themselves, seeking to govern or rule their fellow men for the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams (whether those hopes and dreams were personal or national) each attempt at government has failed! Look how simple it really is — and understand. From the time Cain killed Abel, men have sought peace on earth. Today, in this modern world of the yawning gap of orbital satellites and illiteracy, this world stands in momentary jeopardy of that "ultimate insanity:" nuclear-bomb war, which would annihilate every last man, woman and child on earth! It's the age of the H-hangover, space-sickness, technological terror, and nuclear nerves. This war-weary world seems, at this moment, further from world peace, harmony and understanding between nations than it has ever been. And so, just as simply as two plus two equals four, it is true that the ATTEMPTS of mankind to achieve PEACE, and to do it his own way, apart from HIS GOD, have resulted in this modern culture of chaos. Where will it all end? How will it all resolve itself? What lies ahead in the FUTURE? These are the really BIG questions today — and apart from the revelation of Almighty GOD, the most unanswerable! But there is an answer — and it really makes sense! Next month, you'll see the tragic and pathetically humorous problems facing the United Nations; the impossible problem facing many new nations; and the FINAL SOLUTION to the problems of Government!