No, I really don't miss it

[cmdr_zoom]

It's a quirk of history that several of my favorite Indigo Girls songs make passing reference to "nuclear annihilation" - something which (mostly) ceased to be a serious threat only a few short years later.

Those who depend on a climate of fear have done their best to whip "OMG TERRORIZM" to similar levels, but I don't think the young today will ever really comprehend living under that. And I'm glad that they don't have to.

Realistically, if you don't live near a major landmark or city, you will never be personally endangered by terrorism (in this country). We had it drilled into us that in a nuclear war, NOWHERE was safe (except Australia, maybe); if someone somewhere decided to push the button, everyone was going to die. The only question was how and how soon.

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

NOWHERE was safe (except Australia, maybe)
Neville Shute says otherwise.

Yeah, the all to brief era of the late 90's should have become the norm.

Though in all honesty, the Chinese worry me. They've been expanding their arsenal.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

And everyone knows what the flashpoint issue there is going to be, but we're still oh-so-politely tiptoeing around the elephant and hoping that it will somehow go away on its own (or can be postponed indefinitely).

Meanwhile, they're also working on their space program... and we all remember the other point of a space program, right?

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Oh my yes.

Also, they want to colonize the moon.

How exactly does one say "Harsh mistress" in Mandarin and Cantonese?

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Confucius say, "Man at bottom of well not win rock-throwing contest."

[caluche.livejournal.com]

I think even during the cold war the public perception of how bad things would have been is a lot worse than it actually would have been in 95% of the cases (thinking limited, countervalue exchanges).

I also think we're well beyond that point. China and the US have more dependencies on each other than the USSR and the US did and the Chinese willingness to wait a long time for Taiwan as well as the US willingness to not support outright Taiwanese independence goes a long way to keeping that from becoming a flashpoint. Also, to be blunt, Taiwan just isn't as important now as reunification of Germany or an outright Soviet invasion of western Europe was in the 70s and 80s.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I've been meaning to ask for a while when and how I picked you up as a reader.

[caluche.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how long it's been - well more than a year that it's been on my RSS reader. How I'm not sure about either, it started as a discussion with another friend about CoH and then went from there to a search on the net to a vague recognition of you from somewhere to then realizing that we went to high school together.

Your name comes up from time to time (though generally very rarely) just enough in the 'wonder what he's doing now' context and of course your writing has an interesting style. So, I'm a reader.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Well, true, but being Australian, he would. Australians hate being left out of anything, including the end of all life on Earth. :)

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I hate to seem contrary for its own sake, but where I see the modern state of affairs might lead scares me more than the Cold War did. The threat of global thermonuclear war was paralyzing in its absolutism. The threat of global terrorism is paralyzing in its uncertainty. Theoretically, a radical enough act of terror could cause (some might argue "has already caused") a chain of events that will lead through various stages of decay and disater to something (in my mind) worse than worldwide extinction: the complete collapse of the existing social and economic order. Worldwide anarchy. Post-apocalyptic chaos without an old-fashioned apocalypse beforehand.

Personally, I'd rather be vaporized in a thousandth of a second of unimaginably bright light than end up chained to the front of the Jeep that makes the final assault on the Thunderdome and the world's last 20 gallons of gas. You're probably right that younger folks don't really comprehend the threat, but that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't one.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

"Contrary for its own sake"? Not at all; that's an excellent point. I fear (anticipate?) a fascist theocracy more than a total breakdown, though.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

The fascist theocracy is one of the waystations on the road to a total breakdown. Such a state can't maintain its hold for all that long; it can, however, create excellent conditions for nothing more organized than motorcycle gangs to replace it when it falls...

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Again, point. I guess I'm not taking a long enough view. /wry