Humanities & Classics 3270
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Sixties Forum
Humanities & Classics 3270 |
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In Reply to: Nuclear War posted by Andy Kauppinen on May 12, 1998 at 16:26:06:
: Well we all know how powerful war can be, both to change things and to change people and to change ideas and philosophy.
War is the only way new countries are formed. It is the leading weapon of choice for the attaining of freedom. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating war. I am commenting on history. There are better means of solving problems than killing or hurting each other. Maybe someday conflicts will be resolved some other way. American Football comes to mind. Makes sense since the USA would kick ass anyway, and we are the only superpower left...
In this case, you may notice that "death" or "kill" in some form can be substituted for change, and sometimes I wonder if the true cause of war isn't about change but about death itself.
I really don't know about this. I lean towards disagreeing with you ont his point. I think that perhaps just the opposite is true. War is about change, and death is the price that seems, currently, anyway, that needs to be paid.
I was thinking about this the other day, thinking about nuclear war I was, and I was thinking about those days of the cold war and the little bomb shelter signs that were posted in the halls of my schools, or the sirens I would see while hiking that I learned later were to be a means to communicate if atom bombers were to invade the US from north, the Canadian border.
This concept was lampooned wonderfully in the "Skuzzlebut" episode of South Park. Ducking and covering from lava makes even less sense than ducking from a nuclear warhead.
I was thinking about how much change a nuclear bomb can bring. Change as Tom was telling us in class by leaving nothing left of a person but xrays in the concrete in the rough outline of what they used to look like. And through this I thought about what it must have been to be a child in the sixties, I mean, did they actually tell children that if the bomb siren went off to hide under their desk at on time..
Too much emphasis is placed on death, really. I am guilty just as much as others at times of fearing death. I don't dwell on it as much as I used to. We don't know what's on the other side. Sometimes I think its just what we take with us...nobody knows.
On a slightly morbid note, wouldn't you, knowing if the bomb was on the way, head toward gorund zero? I'd gather those close to me and just head for it. As long as I had loved ones with me, death isn't such a frightning proposition. Death by instantaneous combustion, well, that's the next best thing to dying in your sleep so far as I can see.