Mutually Assured Destruction, It's Time To Bring It Back.
Wikipedia attempts to put M.A.D. on the continuum of the
history of those who believe that 'once war is made too horrible,
people will obviously cease to fight it.' This is a mistaken conflation
of the two. M.A.D. does not belong here. M.A.D. is not the delusion
of those who recoil from war so far, that they cannot face reality.
M.A.D. is the sane man's response to an insane world. The only thing
that stops a sane man from acting when he believes that his
existence is under threat of annihilation, is the threat of that action
bringing CERTAIN annihilation.
M.A.D. is the insurance policy of a nuclear power against another, that
if nuclear power 1 attacks nuclear power 2, then nuclear power 1 will
meet certain annihilation. It's a standoff in which both parties are
guaranteed failure if they attack the other. It has been demonstrated
to work. It is not insane, as the acronym of it's name implies. M.A.D. is
not madness, it is the ultimate CYA (cover your ass) and was the only
thing that allowed many military men to sleep at night, during the
cold war. The all consuming fire was the implacable enforcer of peace.
Terrorists are two bit punks compared to the threat of being evaporated
into plasma at any random, unguessable second. We lost something
when we stopped being mindful that we're on a precipice, staring down
at the great black oblivion that is a new dark age, or even extinction. We
took a truism 'be here now' and tried to give it total deference without
any care for a future that we might want.
If you didn't personally, my apologies, but those of us who decided to
ignore things because they were too horrible, we buried the care it
takes to tread in a world full of hazards. We need to bring back this
vigilance, not the mind numbing fear of being torn asunder at the
subatomic level suddenly, and without warning, but the attentiveness
that is borne of caring that there is a tomorrow, instead of living every
day like there isn't.
Reagan's Joke Lead To Red Alert | Flashback | NBC News
Here is a humorous memory.
images: sobremi.weebly.com/uploads/1/9/2/6/19263055/8880565_orig.jpg
cdn2.spiegel.de/images/image-1069449-galleryV9-jwvw-1069449.jpg
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DGNZnfKYnU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFCABnWlN8E
Not a bad take on that insane situation; a very difficult moral quandary from any angle
There were those that tried to play things both ways:
This quote speaks very clearly to a central problem of MAD
Which leads to another issue:
We did a decent job in that uncertain insanity; at least we didn't melt the world!
Quotes taken from "Introduction DETERRENT OR DEFENSE?" of Pournelle's There Will Be War Volume III
War is immoral, a promise of self defense is not. I've been unsure about Pournelle for a long time. I don't know how he got along well enough with Larry Niven to write a whole book with him.
Deterrence is not only possible, it is demonstrated in practice. All enemies who stated they would fight to the last man stood down eventually if their defeat was obvious.
If We the People want to have a better chance at not being led into madness, by the irrational, or despondent, we should cease to employ politicians as our leaders, and probably cease to accept leadership at all.
Putting up signs that say 'trespassers will be shot' is not immoral. There is an argument to be made about actually doing it.
I love the comments.
think of Pournelle as an empire builder w/o being a globalist; a neocon w/o being a corruptocrat or closet leftist
He sees the first line of American defense as engagement outside the county; theoretically I have agreed with him most of my life. the corruption the neocons have brought to that policy makes me question it realistically
His blog is https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/
a smart guy whether you agree with him or not ;>
He's a smart guy and a good writer. I think he and I disagree on words not equating to actions.
One of the problems with political parties, and mass practice of ideology is the eventual subversion of groups or movements by the control freaks.
Conquest's 2nd law of politics, growth complex, Pournelle's (again) Iron Law, and many more theories tend to agrre with you
but if the pyschos didn't have government to rob you with, they'd hold you up at the liquor store ;>
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