When Power Forgets Humanity
- Paula Sadler
- 20 hours ago
- 5 min read
When Power Forgets Humanity
3-7-2026
Corruption, War, and the Nuclear Warning of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler
There are moments in history when humanity must stop, breathe, and ask itself a difficult question:
What kind of world are we creating?
In recent months and years, many people around the world have felt a growing exhaustion — not just from daily life, but from the relentless cycle of political conflict, violence, fear, and division.
Recently I wrote the following reflection:
“I'm not sure about anybody else but the current state of affairs of our nation and the world is exhausting. Every day for the past year and a half it's been trauma after trauma, a constant barrage of bad news, causing not only PTSD but TSD — ongoing traumatic stress disorder for sure. It's been taxing physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally in every way possible. Hard to find just a tiny bit of peace and hope. The world pandemic was easier to deal with than this.”
For many people, the stress does not come from a single event. It comes from the accumulation of cruelty, injustice, and moral confusion that seems to be spreading across societies.
We see people cheering the suffering of others. We see political leaders inflaming division instead of healing it. We see religious language used to justify discrimination, violence, and domination.
As I wrote:
“To know that there are other people living on the planet that think what is happening within our government is okay and actually even amazing… To have people gloating over the killing of American citizens or the torture and abuse of Black and brown people and immigrants, the eradication of LGBTQ people, forced conversion of transgender people and criminalization of them — and then they go to church and praise Jesus and thank God for these things.”
This contradiction is one of the deepest spiritual crises of our time.
History shows us again and again what happens when power becomes detached from compassion.
The Dangerous Illusions of Power
Human civilization has always struggled with the temptations of:
Greed
Domination
Empire
Control
Superiority
When these forces combine with nationalism, racism, or religious extremism, the results can be catastrophic.
The twentieth century gave us some of the clearest warnings.
Two of those warnings came in August 1945.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Humanity Crosses a Line
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The bomb — known as “Little Boy” — weighed about 10,000 pounds.
In an instant:
Temperatures near the blast reached over 7,000°C
Entire neighborhoods vaporized
Fires ignited across the city
Human shadows were burned permanently into walls
By the end of 1945, approximately 140,000 people had died.
Three days later, on August 9, 1945, a second bomb — “Fat Man” — was dropped on Nagasaki.
In Nagasaki:
Six square kilometers were destroyed instantly
Over 50,000 homes vanished
Tens of thousands died immediately
Many more suffered burns, leukemia, and radiation sickness for decades
In my earlier reflection I wrote:
“On August 6th 1945 the first nuclear bomb was used in war… over 200,000 people died and then became sick with leukemia and radiation poisoning. Everything within a mile radius completely destroyed… severe damage extending miles outward. In Nagasaki 6 square kilometers were destroyed instantly — 52,000 homes in an instant.”
These events permanently changed the world.
Humanity had discovered a weapon capable of erasing entire cities in seconds.
The Nuclear Threat Today
What many people do not realize is that the bombs dropped in 1945 are tiny compared to modern nuclear weapons.
Today's thermonuclear weapons can be:
10 times stronger
50 times stronger
sometimes hundreds of times stronger
Modern warheads can destroy entire metropolitan areas.
There are currently estimated to be roughly 12,000 nuclear weapons on Earth, held primarily by the United States and Russia, but also by several other nations.
Scientists warn that if even a small fraction of those weapons were used, the result could be global nuclear winter — a collapse of agriculture and ecosystems that could threaten civilization itself.
As I wrote in my reflection:
“These bombs are nothing compared to what is in the arsenal of today's military. What kind of world have we really created? How did society come to this — to even be able to have these weapons of mass destruction that are so deadly?”
It is a question humanity still struggles to answer.
Corruption, Greed, and the Machinery of War
The existence of nuclear weapons is not simply a technological issue.
It is a moral issue.
Weapons of this scale exist because of:
geopolitical rivalry
economic power structures
military industrial interests
fear-based politics
nationalist ideology
Throughout history, empires have justified domination in many ways:
race
religion
economics
security
But the underlying engine is often the same.
Power.
And power without wisdom becomes destructive.
The Spiritual Choice Before Humanity
We now live in a time where humanity possesses the technological ability to destroy itself many times over.
Yet at the same time, we also possess the knowledge, compassion, and spiritual insight necessary to choose another path.
As I wrote:
“Everyone is equal. No one is above another. But there is a difference between right and wrong. There is a difference between doing good and doing bad.There is a difference between love and hate.”
History repeatedly shows us that when societies abandon empathy, the consequences can be devastating.
But when people choose compassion, justice, and cooperation, transformation becomes possible.
The Only Path Forward
The lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not simply about war.
It is about human responsibility.
It is about recognizing that:
hatred destroys nations
greed destroys societies
domination destroys peace
But love builds the future.
As I concluded in my reflection:
“The only path forward is love. Otherwise it will always be complete and total annihilation and destruction — whether it is against an individual, a group, or the whole world itself.”
Humanity stands at a crossroads.
The question is not whether we have the power to destroy the world.
We clearly do.
The question is whether we have the wisdom to protect it.
And that choice belongs to all of us.
Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler
Founder & Spiritual Leader Universal Rainbow Faith
“The destructive force behind the world’s nuclear arsenal is not measured in one city, one nation, or one battlefield. It is measured in thousands of megatons of explosive power — enough to erase civilizations, poison the earth, darken the skies, and threaten life on a global scale.”