As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott Reusser ·
Feb 5, 2011 at 10:39pm
One of the more memorable moments of my teenage years was seeing my Reagan-loving dad tear up during Gorbachev's conciliatory address to the Joint Session of Congress in 1987. Prior to those recent events, he told me, he always assumed my brother and I would eventually die in a nuclear war. Strange days.
For those Ricochet-ers who have the Cold War as a reference point (and even those who don't), do these new strange days merit the same anxiety for our kids and their future as those in the past?
I, for one, am beginning to feel the same deep sadness and fear when I look at my kids that my dad felt back then.
- Comment (31)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (6)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott, I would have to say yes, but with some differences born not just out of the distance of 25-30 years. As a military brat, I was far more attuned to the geopolitics of the era than my kids are today. My oldest is the same age I was when Andropov was in power, a rather tense time in U.S. - Soviet relations that I remember well. Yet other than being aware of notable events (9/11, the 2008 election, Chilean miners, etc.), my boy has yet to awaken to current events. I'm not altogether bothered by that either - that awareness will come soon enough.
While I worry about the America he will inherit, and the nature of the world seemingly being reshaped before our eyes, all I can do is pass down the values I hold, and hope that whatever the future holds, that my children will hold forth those values as their own.
I've always been concerned about my parenting, but I do sense that in "these strange new days," laying a foundation for my children is of a growing, vital importance.
May '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Wow, Jim, that was good. And that's exactly how I look at it: Preserve their innocence for a time, while imparting virtue and strength, come what may.
Jul '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
During the Cold War, we worried about the coming bang.
Now, we worry about the coming whimper.
Dec '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Global Thermonuclear War is highly unlikely. The Russians did, as Sting opined, "love their children too." So do the Chinese.
The people who don't love their children don't have enough H-bombs to destroy the world, nor do they have the patience to create an arsenal of them before starting their assault on the rest of the world.
Now an economic collapse, followed by the rise of fanatic regimes in America, China or Russia, could change that calculus and lead to a return to the thermonuclear brinkmanship of the past.
May '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Stuart Creque: Global Thermonuclear War is highly unlikely. The Russians did, as Sting opined, "love their children too." So do the Chinese.
The people who don't love their children don't have enough H-bombs to destroy the world, nor do they have the patience to create an arsenal of them before starting their assault on the rest of the world.
Now an economic collapse, followed by the rise of fanatic regimes in America, China or Russia, could change that calculus and lead to a return to the thermonuclear brinkmanship of the past. · Feb 5 at 11:47am
The Russian army will be majority Muslim by 2015. Which is cool.
Jul '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott Reusser
Stuart Creque: Global Thermonuclear War is highly unlikely. The Russians did, as Sting opined, "love their children too." So do the Chinese.
The people who don't love their children don't have enough H-bombs to destroy the world, nor do they have the patience to create an arsenal of them before starting their assault on the rest of the world.
Now an economic collapse, followed by the rise of fanatic regimes in America, China or Russia, could change that calculus and lead to a return to the thermonuclear brinkmanship of the past. · Feb 5 at 11:47am
The Russian army will be majority Muslim by 2015. Which is cool. · Feb 5 at 11:58am
Putin won't allow that to happen. I'm not sure if you know many Russians, but they are the least politically-correct people on Earth, to put it mildly.
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott, such an interesting thing to think about!
I'm not sure what my parents thought, but I thought for sure my brothers and I would die that way. I distinctly remember pestering my older brother to tell me about nuclear weapons. What would happen to us if one fell on the US? I asked. "Well," he said, "all our skin would probably melt off."
He might have been 12 at the time while I was about 7 or 8, and I have no idea (nor care to know) the gory details of whether this is accurate or not. But, I can tell you one thing -- that phrase has been seared in my memory for life.
I try not to, but I do look at my three kids (6, 4, and 2) and think about how today's scary events will shape their future. I agree; I think our best approach is Jim Chase's.
Edited on Feb 5, 2011 at 12:16pmJul '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Ursula Hennessey: Scott, such an interesting thing to think about!
I'm not sure what my parents thought, but I thought for sure my brothers and I would die that way.
I never believed it would come to nuclear war. Probably because I was aware of how well the Soviet apparatchiks lived. Fabulous apartments. Luxurious dachas. Special stores where the Communist elite could purchase luxury goods. Stables of nubile mistresses. Heck, Leonid Brezhnev had a collection of rare automobiles that put Jay Leno's to shame.
You don't let that sort of stuff go up in smoke over mere ideology.
Our current adversaries are another matter entirely. When all you've got is a mud hut, a couple of goats and a cooking pot, why not send your firstborn out festooned with a suicide vest?
Edited on Feb 5, 2011 at 12:40pmMay '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
It has ever been thus, I guess.
Maybe the only thing unique about our times is that, unlike previous generations, we were briefly exposed to an interval (the 90's) when we indulged in the fantasy that our kids wouldn't be threatened.
Dec '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott Reusser
It has ever been thus, I guess.
Maybe the only thing unique about our times is that, unlike previous generations, we were briefly exposed to an interval (the 90's) when we indulged in the fantasy that our kids wouldn't be threatened. · Feb 5 at 2:22pm
My daughter wrote a college paper in the form of a short story for the assignment, "create a personal myth." She created the scenario in which the Solar System is destroyed to explore how people would react in a religious and spiritual sense to inescapable doom. She asked what kind of catastrophe would do that, and I suggested an interstellar hydrogen cloud that acts like gasoline on the Sun's fire.
I just finished adapting the story into a feature-length screenplay.
And guess what link I happened randomly upon tonight?
December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist.
I am seriously creeped out.
Jul '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Stuart Creque
...
December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist.
I am seriously creeped out.
I'm no astronomer, but I would not let that 6000C temperature freak me too much. Molecular temperatures tend to be all over the place and what we experience at the macro level is the average of a lot of molecular inputs. The nuclear reaction when a bubble in carbonated soda collapses is supposed to briefly reach 10,000C, and yet we swizzle soda to cool off. I don't see any reason from the article to think that the heliopause will collapse, or even contract past the outer planets.
NASA has been latching onto radiation threats as a concern for manned Martian exploration, shielding requirements have been estimated upwards the last five years as we focused more closely on the problem. An increase in inbound cosmic rays owing to counter pressure at the heliopause boundary may frustrate shielding approaches focused on a reliably uni-directional solar source.
Jul '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
The likelihood of a nuclear war was pretty high between the last one, ending in 1945 to around 1965, higher than most people not in the loop thought at the time. The Cuban Missile Crisis, over the long term, resulted in some pretty rigorous rethinking of how these weapons can and should be used and some of the more dire consequences. The nuclear winter stuff doesn't have legs, but Mutual Assured Destruction and long term radiation poisoning in attacked regions is a very real consequence (thus, the Neutron Bomb, but I digress).
As we continue as a planet down the road of proliferation, the probability of a nuclear weapon being used against a population center is veering sharply upward again, and as my children reach middle teen years I introduce them to the Holocaust, the Nazi's grand design, and Israel's creation and fight for survival, mainly through the Wiesenthal videos, to Netanyahu's excellent book on Terror, to who Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood are. And living near Ground Zero, they know the drill for when the day comes. The chances of global armageddon are not high, but the chances of local armageddon are rising.
Dec '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Sisyphus, I'm not so worried about the demise of the Solar System as I am creeped out that my imaginary scenario now shows up in a NASA publication under the rubric "this shouldn't be there." By the way, as you point out, the localized temperature of a bubble forming is very high. Doesn't that indicate that cavitation might just make cold fusion possible?
Nov '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Reference points? In my small-town grade school we practiced the "Stop, Drop, and Cover" drill during the Cuban missle crisis; the movie "Fail Safe" absolutely terrified me; I knew people who had real nuclear bomb shelters.
Depending on my blood sugar level, I waiver between the kind of dread you describe and a hopefulness that people share some kind of universal kindredship that would never let such horrors be unleashed in the world. Parents throughout history have always had a natural fear for their children's survival, whether the source was nuclear annihilation or the Mongol Hordes.
Keep in mind that we have never received more information about what is happening around us than we do right now, and the journalistic credo "If it bleeds, it leads" remains firmly intact. Thus, the world can look pretty dismal most days.
Jun '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott, I was in high school and college during the Reagan era. While there was a quite a bit of hysteria about nuclear destruction, I didn't feel like it would happen. America was strong back then and we pushed back hard all over the world. Plus, I really didn't think the Soviets were that crazy.
Now, I think we have a more unpredictable, completely irrational threat where people will do anything to get at us. I'm more scared now. There are many similarities playing out between the communist era and the Islamic extremist era. We had a lot of people freaking out about Reagan like we do about apologists to radical Islam today. Still, we won the last one, so I will continue to put my money down on us. Keep doing what you're doing.
Jun '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
I was raised in the Cold War, but for some reason, I was more fearful of Nazi and NJ Mafia threats. I used to walk by a military surplus store that had a Nazi uniform complete with helmet in the window & it gave me the chills. I had read a great deal of fiction about kids bravely outwitting the Nazis, so their evil seemed to be always lurking. I went to school with plenty of kids from mobbed-up families and watched old ganster movies so I was hyper aware of the mob threat. I always looked over my shoulder when eating at Umberto's in Littel Italy. Yet I always believed we would outwit the Soviets.
Islamism doesn't need a nuclear bomb. They are moving along steadily with a demographic bomb that will bring sharia law to the wussy Western world. That's my fear for my children's future, and it is terrifying.
Jul '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Seneca to Lucillius: There are more things in this world to frighten us than to crush us. We suffer more in imagination than in reality.
Epictetus said we must not allow untoward external events, or their appearances, to lead our imaginations on in negative or unhelpful ways.
These are good times to read the Stoics. They have a calming effect. So does ginger in your tea.
Aug '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Kenneth repeats the warning, Western Civ will give up without a fight. Heck our culture mavens would toss us off a cliff in a minute. Haven't noticed too many glorious celebrations of our old culture on HBO or MTV lately. Skins isn't about anything more than nihilism for dummies. Ghetto culture is a fad for youth. Perhaps if we can fix the blame, we can find the rest of the solution. Unfortunately it is my and Kenneth's generation who brought this environment into being. PC, multiculti, and the amnesia of world leadership combined with the tyranny of guilt (ht Bruckner) that formed the EU and it's deliberate establishment as a doormat for lack of conviction to invent an atmosphere of supine acceptance of destroying the basic building blocks of society.
Sep '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
We live in a time of an ascendant China and an old Europe and Japan heading for demographic irrelevance. Are we next. Will our children or grandchildren prefer to give in and heed the muezzin’s call. I think it is natural to feel the pressure that is on the west. It is the fact that you feel the pressure that is important.
At the risk of sounding corny, we need to believe: 1) that our civilization is worth spreading not just preserving, 2) that every child we have is not destroying the planet, in fact they are helping it, and 3) these are the good old days, be concerned about the future, but realize that in most objective measures it has never been as good as it is now.
Nov '10
Re: As Grave a Threat as the Cold War?
Scott: Great post. I'm a child of the 80s myself and I remember a feeling of tension during the early to mid 80s that gave way to relief at the end. My parents were conservatives and were anti-communist. Looking back though, I don't recall a feeling of hopelessness or even fear during that time. And I think that's because they still believed that America was getting better. Yes, we had enemies who wanted to destroy us, but America was still a place to be proud of and looked like returning to her true self.
I personally, and my conservative relatives, are much less hopeful now even as the foreign threats don't seem as menacing. It's because we no longer have the optimism that America will get better. The rot is coming more from within now, not from without. That is a much more dispiriting proposition to me.