FROM CASES OF HYSTERIA TO THE THERAPEUTIC SOCIETY
245
fact, Rutherford once said the idea that you can get energy from the nucle–
us is moonshine, and he was one of the greates t experimental nuclear
physicists who ever lived.
Speaker:
Do you believe that when one takes a scien tific view of human
affairs, when one studies it in a dependable, reliable, more or less objective
way, that this
ipso facto
precludes room for morality, freedom of choice, per–
sonal responsibility, individual accountability ...
Leon Cooper:
Absolutely not. This is a bit like asking whether a detailed,
chemical knowledge of what happens when we share a bottle of Lafite
Rothschild is going to change our appreciation of that great wine. One has
nothing to do wi th the other. I would love to have a thorough under–
standing of everything, but I don't expect that to change my appreciation
of my own experience. I don't believe that anything we learn about our–
selves will relieve us of personal responsibili ty and accountabili ty. Of
course, you could cite extremes in which a person cannot function or make
choices. But for most of us choices are possible. I don't believe anything
we learn wil l change that.
Morris Eagle:
Unfortunately, our time is up. Thank you all.
SESSION
III:
HISTORY THEN AND
Now
Edith Kurzweil:
The two speakers at this session, Walter Laqueur and
Robert Wistrich, hardly need any introduction. We will first hear from
Walter Laqueur, who is Chairman of the International Research Council
at CSIS. He will be speaking on "Fin de siecle Terrorism."
Walter Laqueur:
I shall limit myself to a few observations about violence
at the end of the century. I mean violence as a motive in the work of writ–
ers, painters and composers on one hand, and terrorist violence on the
other. Apocalyptic moods and thoughts have appeared fairly regularly
throughout history and can be detected without much difficulty at the
present time. I am aware that fin de siecle is not necessarily a synonym for
apocalyptic moods, and even among believers in the apocalypse we find
considerable differences, for instance between optimi sts and pessimists.
The optimists believe that a new and better world will emerge from the
ruins of the old world; the pessimists do not share this belief. The tradition
of the cheerful apocalyptics reaches from the Revelation of St. John by way
of Karl Marx to Aquarius and the New Age. Among the be t-known
