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During the cold war, there was a clear narrative: an ideological opposition between the US and the Soviet Union. Moments of great tension were understood as episodes within that narrative. The closest we came to nuclear confrontation was the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the two countries seemed on the edge of war. But the crisis itself was finished inside a fortnight, and there was a wider framework to fall back on. The 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty calmed the waters.
Then, in the early 1980s the tough-talking but critically derided , Ronald Reagan was elected US president. He reignited the cold war rhetoric and began escalating the arms race, and there was an assumption – particularly in Europe – that nuclear destruction was creeping closer. But it was still within a recognisable context. That ended with the collapse of communism, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. For a while the world felt a much safer place than it had been.
But the cold war was replaced by uncertainty. And now the uncertainty is combined with the unpredictability of Donald Trump. The recent bombing raids in Syria and Afghanistan were isolated moments, without any sense of programme or continuity. Nor does there seem any logic to why North Korea should have suddenly become a pressing issue. Incidents that seem to arrive out of the blue can be much more frightening. We're probably not on the verge of nuclear war, but it's destabilising if we can't make sense of events.
Is the world more dangerous now than during the cold war?
[Related]: Nuclear war will ignite in May 2017, mystic Horacio Villegas says
What do you think ?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:55AM (6 children)
PLEASE SOMEONE POINT MY FINGER AT THE ENEMY!!
IS IT TRUMP??? IS IT????????
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:07AM (2 children)
I hereby self-proclaim myself as mystic prophet, and make the following predictions:
SCNR :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @12:24PM (1 child)
The end of the world would relieve us of the endless suffering brought on by multiple bullet points.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:02PM
Or would it?
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:09AM (1 child)
It is not Trump. It is us.
For not raising a ruckus come election time and letting our leaders work with elite bankers to quagmire this nation in to unrepayable debt.
Not only that, we have taken out personal debts to enjoy a brief spat of unearned standard-of-living at tomorrow's expense. Today is measured in hours, tomorrows are measured in years. Most of us do not seem to understand just how this works.
Today ends. Tomorrow comes. Now, loaded with yesterday's obligations to make good on as well as the new ones the new day brings.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 23 2017, @10:13AM
For not raising a ruckus come election time and letting our leaders work with elite bankers to quagmire this nation in to unrepayable debt.
The last three US presidential elections were all about raising a ruckus. Obama was "hope and change". Trump is "make America great again".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:46AM
&trump
There ya go.