Read Broca's Brain for Free Online Page B

the interest of … his country.” He held that there was “a duty in refusing to cooperate in any undertaking that violates the Constitutional rights of the individual. This holds in particular for all inquisitions that are concerned with the private life and the political affiliations of the citizens …” For taking this position, Einstein was widely attacked in the press. And Senator Joseph McCarthy stated in 1953 that anyone who proffered such advice was “himself an enemy of America.” In his later years it became fashionable in some circles to couple an acknowledgment of Einstein’s scientific genius with a patronizing dismissal of his political views as “native.” But times have changed. I wonder if it is not more reasonable to argue in quite a different direction: in a field such as physics, where ideas can be quantified and tested with great precision, Einstein’s insights stand unrivaled, and we are astonished that hecould see so clearly where others were lost in confusion. Is it not worth considering that in the much murkier field of politics his insights might also have some fundamental validity?
    In his Princeton years Einstein’s passion remained, as always, the life of the mind. He worked long and hard on a Unified Field Theory which would combine gravitation, electricity and magnetism on a common basis, but his attempt is widely considered to have been unsuccessful. He lived to see his General Theory of Relativity incorporated as the principal tool for understanding the large-scale structure and evolution of the universe, and would have been delighted to witness the vigorous application of general relativity occurring in astrophysics today. He never understood the reverence with which he was held, and indeed complained that his colleagues and Princeton graduate students would not drop in on him unannounced for fear of disturbing him.
    But he wrote: “My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or State, to my circle of friends or even to my own family. These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the years. Such isolation is sometimes bitter, but I do not regret being cut off from the understanding and sympathy of other men. I lose something by it, to be sure, but I am compensated for it in being rendered independent of the customs, opinions and prejudices of others and am not tempted to rest my peace of mind upon such shifting foundations.”
    His principal recreations throughout his life were playing the violin and sailing. In these years Einstein looked like and in some respects was a sort of aging hippie. He let his white hair grow long and preferred sweaters and a leather jacket to a suit and tie, even when entertaining famous visitors. He was utterly withoutpretense and, with no affectation, explained that “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the President of the University.” He was often available to the public, sometimes being willing to help high school students with their geometry problems—not always successfully. In the best scientific tradition he was open to new ideas but required that they pass rigorous standards of evidence. He was open-minded but skeptical about claims of planetary catastrophism in recent Earth history and about experiments alleging extrasensory perception, his reservations about the latter stemming from contentions that purported telepathic abilities do not decline with increasing distance between sender and receiver.
    In matters of religion, Einstein thought more deeply than many others and was repeatedly misunderstood. On the occasion of Einstein’s first visit to America, Cardinal O’Connell of Boston