Boris Artzybasheff on nuclear weapons: "What posesses the flea to concoct its own flea powder?"

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog has scanned in more drawings from mid-20th century illustrator Boris Artzybasheff's out-of-print masterwork As I See. This time, the subject is war, and Artzbasheff's intro to the section is awe-inspiring. He's as fine a writer as he is an artist.

Let's sing hosannas to men this day, for theirs is the triumph of wit! In their long search for better tools and weapons, men at last have found the way of locking a pinch of cosmic force in a sheath of silver-white metal... as well as the means for making it go boom. Any time they wish, or think they must, men can touch off an orgasmic flash, making the oceans boil and seethe with fire, making the soil rise up in crimson dust... Perhaps after the cloud drifts thrice around it, the earth will emerge once more free of living things... In the hush of night this comely planet will go on waltzing in its ordained orbit until God awakens from His sleep and resolves it back to the primordial elements.

I try to shake this thought off; it may be that a healthy planet should have no more life upon it than a well-kept dog has fleas; but what posesses the flea to concoct its own flea powder?

Link (More Boing Boing coverage of Artzybasheff here)