Einstein thought that an atomic war would destroy ninety percent of mankind. We doubt that but we do not doubt that it would destroy at least half of mankind. Yet we do not think that it will be either the explosiveness of the bombs nor the radioactive emanations which follow in their wake that will be so responsible for this result, as the consequent breakdown of the highly centralized form of civilized living which has been developed in modern times. For with it will come the disorganization of city supplies and the temporary paralysis of country farms, the disappearance of orderly government, the moral chaos and gross selfishness that will manifest themselves during the anarchic struggle for survival, and the inability of city-dwellers to endure and adapt themselves like pioneers to the primitive conditions with which they will abruptly be faced.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience > Chapter 4 : World Crisis > # 405
