Maybe I'm just imagining it. Maybe the Colossal Lie is just a figment of my fevered imagination.
Then someone mentions Stanislav Petrov -- The Man Who Saved the World.
One of the major features of this Mutual Assured Destruction
(MAD) posture is that the incoming nuclear warheads cannot be detected by our
human senses since they travel at over 1000 miles every 4 minutes -- and in the
stratosphere. They can only be detected by electronic sensors.
We have created a species-destroying monster which we are unable to directly
control! All electronic systems are subject to failure -- catastrophic failure
in these circumstance. When the claxons went off in Petrov's early-warning command
centre. He had to decide - Should he tell the owners of the fingers on the
button and probably ensure that the other half of humanity perished or keep
quiet. He kept quiet (it was an electronic malfunction). Would Mr Bush or Mr
Cheney, or Mr Rumsfeld or Mr Blair have done the same? The drunkard President
Yeltsin had his finger hovering over the button in similar circumstance but, fortunately,
refrained from pressing it.
Wait a minute. I must be missing something here. Surely it must be that today we have very wise and very very clever people in charge who know that they have devised a system which is absolutely one hundred percent foolproof. After all if it was not one hundred percent foolproof it would surely be absolutely clear that this system, "for ensuring our safety', is completely off-the-wall insane.
But, then, why is it that I always thought human beings are not creatures capable of making anything one hundred per cent predictable. Why did I always think that mistakes are endemic - part of the human condition. After all if it was possible to make anything one hundred per cent safe wouldn't we have made nuclear power stations one hundred percent safe. Presumable we tried .And ended up with three simultaneous complete meltdowns at Fukushima which we can't bring under control.
So where does that leave me in the face of this terminal Colossal Lie?
I have decided to reaffirm, to myself, my own sanity. But doesn't that mean that this omnicidal stance is not sane . Well, yes - either not sane or its supporters are in a state of total despair . What other conclusion is possible when there is a simple remedy - when we could all be rendered safe from this appalling threat of annihilation?
The world leaders could simply ban nuclear weapons (as we have banned chemical and biological weapons and land mines and cluster bombs) and create a UN force to ensure adherence to the ban.
O.K. but there is no particular hurry, is there?
Well, there is, actually. The relatively new nuclear weapons states, India and Pakistan, have already been close to war on two occasions on which the use of nuclear weapons were considered.
A state of international hysteria is being whipped up by Israel and powerful elements in the US threatening war with Iran because it is considered by some that the Iranians might be planning to create their own nuclear weapons.
The Colossal Lie breeds concomitant lies. One of these is that Israel is justified in its posture although it is common knowledge that it has 80-100 nuclear weapons of its own. We are told it is "opaque' about this. Obfuscation and lies.
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