| “Does the individual, wrote Jung, know that he is the makeweight that tips the scales?” |
Connect! There is little most of us can do to influence public policy if we work alone. Disarmament and environmental protection, to pick just two related issues, are political problems and they require political solutions. Political solutions involve people working together, not abstract “people” in general but real people in particular, you and me. The “we” who can solve these problems, the “we” of “We the People,” refers to a specific, living reality, in which each of us is a vital center. We live in an atomized society. A fundamental problem is not whether this or that policy should be adopted but whether discussion of an issue – any issue – is possible at all. The necessary forums, the ones in which participation might matter and truth can be vetted, often don’t exist. We re-create this missing public realm when we communicate with others about issues in a public way, or a way that becomes public. Outside the narrow group that benefits from them, nuclear weapons enjoy very little social support. Quite the contrary. There is a large majority, approaching a consensus in favor of mutual nuclear disarmament pursuant to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires it. Our political problem therefore is primarily not one of convincing people that nuclear weapons are bad. That’s been done, and it’s even buttressed by a body of settled law. In practical terms, then, support for a “vision” of nuclear disarmament doesn’t add much. Disarmament already has wide support, but it’s mostly latent, inactive. To prevent nuclear war and to redirect military resources toward real human and environmental security before it’s too late, we need to mobilize this existing support and focus it decisively on specific, concrete nuclear weapons issues here and now. Preventing new pit production, the construction of new warhead factories, and the production of new warheads are among the three most pivotal such issues.
To do this we need some good people, but we don’t need many. We don’t need to mobilize the masses, or to get a lot of people in one place. These are nice for our own morale, and they do help somewhat. However steady commitment, knowledge, and skills are far more important, and they multiply what any of us can do a thousand-fold. Mobilization at the one percent of one percent level is enough. It isn’t obvious, but nuclear policy runs along a knife-edge. Even one person can make an enormous difference. “[D]oes the individual,” wrote Carl Jung, “know that he is the makeweight that tips the scales?” |
Immediate Practical Objectives
In New Mexico as well as nationally, among the most important immediate, practical, and decisive arms control and disarmament objectives before us today are:
- To stop warhead production and especially plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production, the pivotal and limiting step, before it starts; and
- To halt a controversial new pit factory, the so-called “Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement” (CMRR) facility at LANL, designed to enable convenient and speedy pit production in tandem with the current, adjacent LANL plutonium facility.
- To stop the improvement of warheads and delivery systems, specifically the controversial Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) but including all additional or new warheads and capabilities.
- To decrease the budget of the nuclear weapons enterprise while shifting its internal emphasis toward safety and security as a step toward nuclear disarmament pursuant to treaty obligations.
Suggestions for Action
- Remember to focus on specific, real outcomes! Ask elected officials to act, to act effectively, and to act now! When do we want pit production to stop? This year, before it starts. Where would it happen? At Los Alamos National Laboratory. Don’t fall into the trap of focusing on, say, some pie-in-the-sky “Complex 2030” proposal when decisions that will build the centerpiece of “Complex 2030” are happening right now!
- Get the organizations of which you are a member – churches, businesses, nonprofits, schools – involved. Foster discussion, find allies, and take focused action to convince elected officials at all levels to take appropriate action. Act as an organization if possible.
- Meet with congressional staff and local elected officials.
- Join more than 200 other nonprofits and 300 New Mexico businesses endorsing the Call for Nuclear Disarmament. (If your organization hasn’t signed on, why hasn’t it?)
- Recruit other organizations, businesses, and churches to sign the Call, a public registry available to all.
- Organize a public meeting (ask a Study Group speaker to come).
- Organize a demonstration – be creative!
- Host a small billboard at your home or business (contact us).
- Write letters to the editor & guest editorials and recruit others to do the same.
- Volunteer in our internship program and really dig into the issues as well as the practical lobbying and organizing it takes to win.
- Work with us as a docent and organizer in the Los Alamos Disarmament Center.
- If your business or organization has signed the Call for Nuclear Disarmament and you want to get more involved, call us.
- Work with local jurisdictions to pass disarmament/real security resolutions.
- Donate to the Los Alamos Study Group (yes, it takes money). The Study Group is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax-deductible.
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