TOW #17 – “The Future Is Now” by Katherine Anne Porter

Following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, the globe was effectively destabilized and a strong nuclear threat remained even into the 21^st century.  Recognizing the immense danger posed by atomic weaponry, Porter’s 1950 essay “The Future Is Now” took an unclear stance that while atomic warfare is dangerous, it should not be a cause of major concern. Porter, recognizing that she was speaking to Americans following WWII, commanded that “[i]n his pride to explore his universe to its unimaginable limits and to exceed his possible powers, [humans have] at last produced an embarrassing series of engines too powerful for their containers,” (Porter 196) which suggests Porter’s disapproval of atomic warfare. Later, she maintains, “I fail entirely to see why it is more criminal to kill a few thousand persons in one instant than it is to kill the same number slowly over a period of time,” (Porter 198) effectively delivering a counterargument to the destructiveness and damage caused by atomic bombs. Likewise, Porter upholds that “the invention of every new weapon of war has always been greeted with horror and righteous indignation,” (Porter 197) essentially stating that while there is fear surrounding the atomic bomb, we must move forward as a society. Evidently, the threat of nuclear arms is a constant topic of discussion even today in 2017, a clear disruption of global communication and cooperation. Thus, Porter underestimated the impact of this new warfare entirely, as it redefined military balance of power to require these incalculably destructive bombs. She optimistically exclaims, “it may be that what we have is a world not on the verge of flying apart, but an uncreated one … still in shapeless fragments,” (Porter 198) suggesting that atomic bombs will likely not cause global tensions. Still in the early stages of this new type of warfare, Porter did not effectively recognize the long-term impacts that these immediate threats may pose on a global level, invalidating a central position of her argument.

Works Cited

Porter, Katherine Anne. “The Future Is Now.” The Best American Essays of the Century, Edited by Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA, 2000, pp. 193–198.