An Open Letter to the Good Men at the FBI --
Albert Einstein - The State and the Individual Conscience (excerpt)
The problem with how men should act if his government prescribes actions or society expects an attitude which his own conscience considers wrong is indeed an old one. It is easy to say that the individual cannot be held responsible for acts carried out under irresistible compulsion, because the individual is fully dependent upon the society in which he is living in therefore must accept its rules. But the very formulation of this idea makes it obvious to what extent such a concept contradicts our sense of justice.
External compulsion can, to a certain extent, reduce but never cancel the responsibility of the individual. In the Nuremberg trials this idea was considered to be self-evident. Whatever is morally important in our institutions, laws, and mores can be traced back to interpretation of the sense of justice of countless individuals. Institutions are in a moral sense impotent unless they are supported by the sense of responsibility of living individuals. An effort to arouse and strengthen the sense of responsibility of the individual is an important service to mankind.
