Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the reality-and-perception dept.

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 ?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by number11 on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:42AM (3 children)

    by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:42AM (#498199)

    During the cold war, massive nuclear war was a possibility. When I was in college (the '60s), I expected it. Now, not so much. That's not to say a city here or there couldn't disappear, but massive war is unlikely. Unless Trump comes to blows with Putin (since the US and Russia are really the only two powers with extensive arsenals), but as a trained KGB agent, I think Putin knows how to manipulate people and events, and Putin doesn't want nuclear war. (Yes, it's scary to depend on a foreign adversary to keep things on an even keel, but we have come to that.)

    But fear has always been what politicians reached for to manipulate people. A frightened people is easy to lead where you want. Foreign enemies bulk up their power at home. Crime bulks up their power at home (never mind that crime is at the lowest level that it's been in decades, if you don't count financial crimes by Wall Street). Xenophobia boosts their power at home. And contrary to general belief, it's power that pols want far more than money; though that might not be true of Trump, it's true of those who surround him.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Insightful=4, Total=4
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:10AM (1 child)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:10AM (#498207) Journal

    Yeah. Somehow kids with pressure cookers, nuts with AK47s, even half-trained pilots flying jet liners into buildings, just doesn't raise the sort of anxiety I remember about global thermonuclear war. And considering how many freedoms most Americans seem willing to give up over what are tiny, non-existential threats, I feel like we've become a nation of total crybaby wimps.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:30AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:30AM (#498217) Journal

      Just get acclimatized to the reality that most people around you are less than intelligent zombies. ;-)

      Hey look! new shine iSpy, you-must-buy! :p

  • (Score: 1) by corey on Monday April 24 2017, @02:03AM

    by corey (2202) on Monday April 24 2017, @02:03AM (#498615)

    Agree with all this.

    I'd be concerned if I lived in Seoul, though.