Oppenheimer's BRILLIANT Way of Speaking

we've all said dark and depressing things at different moments in our lives but imagine being considered the human being responsible for originating one of the darkest and depressing quotes in human existence that man would be J Robert Oppenheimer who is known for his Infamous line now I have become death the destroyer of worlds I want to play through that clip later on in this video and discuss why his chilling delivery is so impactful and significant but I also want to bring to your attention in just a few moments two clips from Oppenheimer from rare interviews that illustrate just how brilliant this man was in his thoughts in his sentence composition and in the nuanced ideas that he would bring to conversations now do you think that our country's use of the bomb was necessary I believe that the view which I learned from many but above all from General Marshall and from Colonel Stimson the Secretary of War The View that they had that we would have to fight our way to the main islands and that it would involve a Slaughter of Americans and Japanese on a massive scale was arrived at by then in good faith with regret and on the best evidence that they then had to that alternative I think the bomb was an enormous relief when I watched this I noticed that there's a thoughtfulness and an honesty that's palpable and discernible in his answers and in his eyes what I find fascinating about the way Oppenheimer communicates is that there is incredible Nuance laced into his answers he doesn't State something in the most belonged and obvious way he will add a condition a caveat to a point that he's making for example when he was talking about the generals and their decision he said it's not just a decision that they made it was a decision in good faith he's double clicking zooming into the answer providing additional context all within the structure of one sentence what we just watched I believe was one sentence I want to play through another interview that shows another brilliant side of him and shows how chipper energetic and erratic he can be in the right scenario in this era that is more threatened and dominated than any previous one by scientists their decisions their discoveries what about the poor uninformed civilian it doesn't blame him that's ignorant it's everybody that's it the scientists may know a little patch of something and if he's a Humane and intelligent and curious guy he'll know a few spots from other people's work he may even be able to read a book but but his condition is the condition of everyone which is that almost everything that's known to man he doesn't know anything about it all or knows it only in a very sketchy way and that's because it's it's gotten a bit complicated the problem of of a coherent civilization is the problem of of living with ignorance and not not being frustrated by it so that you find occasionally a man knows two things and that intersection may be a great event in the history of ideas occasionally a man may think that something is relevant or exciting which no one before thought concerned him professionally let me change this to the world and these are the connections these virtual connections these are casual and occasional connections which make the only kind of coherence we have that and and affection that and respect I suppose kind of humanity notice when he speaks that there is a playfulness with his words specifically with the tonality he puts emphasis on certain things and he does use his body the non-verbals to communicate add additional wait I keep defaulting to that word but I do feel it describes what he's showcasing it does do it justice he does lean in several times during the interview where the interviewer will ask him a question and he will lean in to Showcase his interest and he will pause he will ponder the thought before he answers we saw this in the previous clip I don't think I noted it then but he is very careful in stitching his sentences together he is not one to default to a pause or an um or a you know just to fill the error with noise the world would not be the same two people laughed a few people cried most people were silent I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture of the bhagavad-gita Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says now I am become death the destroyer of worlds I suppose we all thought that one way or another a few things I want to note on here so one this quote as Oppenheimer did stipulate in this interview and this is an interview this is actually recorded almost 15 years after the detonation of the atomic bomb which would bring up an interesting point he has this onerous Dreadful almost ghostly encounter about him when he's delivering this line I would be very curious to know how he actually said this when he was more youthful and chipper 15 almost 20 years prior when the bomb was detonated this quote yes does come from the bhagavad-gita and the story behind it is Vishnu who's one of the Hindu gods was instructing Prince Arjuna I believe his name was who was preparing for battle and he had to confront an army that was made up here of his friends and relatives which put him in this bind morally this conflict of interest and he is given this philosophy by Vishnu that aims at helping Prince Arjuna separate his role of a Warrior from his personal feelings and worries this is one of the main lessons taught in the bhagavad-gita it's known as Dharma which I believe translates to something like holy Duty it it's understandable given this scenario how Oppenheimer would have felt something very similar about the nature of his relationship with the creation of this bomb to it being this weapon that could potentially destroy Humanity what's remarkable about all of this is the understanding of the events that surround a quote give an unprecedented weight to the words that almost cannot be quantitated it can't be measured we understand that this is an event that is one of the scars of humanity and that scar tissue is something that we have a I don't want to say a deep reverence but there is this maybe reference is the right word I don't know it's the same flavor and quality of memory that we associate with most events in the past that are traumatic or tragic in some way at least that profoundly affect the large scale of humanity we recognize that there is something very deep and surreal about these words that they're not said in a frivolous or recreational way but they're carefully considered

Channel: Joseph Tsar

Views: 11,947

Keywords: Oppenheimer speaking, Oppenheimer movie reaction, Oppenheimer bomb reaction, Oppenheimer now I have become death, now i have become death destroyer of worlds quote, j robert oppenheimer, Oppenheimer, oppenheimer movie analysis, oppenheimer quotes, quote from j robert oppenheimer, oppenheimer interview, oppenheimer reaction to nuclear bomb, oppenheimer scene, oppenheimer speaking

Id: OF5_rYiFPew

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2023