This was something I said on Modern War and Conflict, a blog that I randomly fell into.
I am in substantial agreement with your comments. I am concerned that we look too hard for cyclic patterns in history though. It is of course very useful to examine patterns, in science, and in life and human affairs. But we should not lose sight of the fact that patterns stop.
The old popular notion of the dialectic nature of history led us in some very self-deluding directions. There was no protection back in 1962 in having a bomb shelter in the back yard, or a six month supply of water and dehydrated food.
We still came within a hair's breadth of destroying the planet and 99+% of all terrestrial life on it.
When that was avoided, we all heaved a sigh of relief. Or at least it seemed so. In truth though, the world stayed just as dangerous. And erroneous propaganda on all sides made matters much worse.
Otherwise intelligent people generated such notions as "duck and cover" to give our school children the feeling that they could defend themselves in some fashion against the nuclear war that seemed quite inevitable.
Nuclear war may indeed be inevitable, but it is unlikely to be of the same sort as we envisioned then. For example, we comfort ourselves that we have not had active use of nuclear weapons since Japan. Not exactly so. I am going to leave this one up in the air... What am I talking about? Any ideas?
We now concern ourselves with the emergency represented by global warming, the rather paradoxical possibilities of the North Atlantic Climate switch affecting the ocean currents, which are central to driving the global climate.
A variety of other systems are very much out of whack as well, causing an unparalleled global runaway extinction. These various influences are NOT cyclic in the sense we think we can see.
It is useful to see patterns when they are there. But it is very dangerous to imagine patterns to be there which are not. I will expand on this further if engaged.
Although I have some interest in tactics and strategy, my focus is on problem recognition and solution accross a wide spectrum of systems in the ecostructure.
The enemy is not opposing geopolitical views and interests. The enemy is ignorance masquerading as intelligence, dogma and fanaticism masquerading as truth.
My blog deals with ideas as diverse as influenza, cataracts, longevity, but more importantly, looking at the inter-relationships between problems which may not even seem to be related.
You are welcome to come over and see what you think. We can even talk about war or politics by other means if you want, but let's do our best not to get too carried away.
I have research and development going on a variety of different fronts, but I do look forward to looking through your archives as time permits. Perhaps you are a chess player?
About Me
- Anthropositor
- Deep South, United States
- Consultant, inventor, mentor, chess coach,. Current projects involve No Till Farming and staving off blindness due to cataracts among other projects. I also do confidential ghost writing (without taking any published credit. My current blindness makes me put this on hold for a while. I should have one eye working again in about four months. Fact, fiction, all subjects considered. I have heard My daughter Jennifer is alive. I would love it if she were to contact me here. I understand she would like to know me. I have sent a message by circuitous route. I can only hope. My posted Email works as well. We have four decades to catch up on.
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3 comments:
Ah, duck and cover. Or as we called when I got older, the Bend Over and Kiss Your Butt Goodbye Drill. They stopped those when I was in elementary school.
Apart from nuclear testing over the years ,I'm not sure of any other times nuclear weapons were used. I would be interested in what you have on that.
I agree that continue to see patterns where none exist.We also seem to make the same mistakes. You'd think we'd learn.
I agree global climate change is likely to be disastrous. I don't put all of the blame on pollution. Earth has always cycled from hot to cold. Humans are more able to adapt now. Unfortunately our furry friends of the forrest are not. I see that as a big problem.
The uses of nuclear weapons are not confined to exploding them. The mere threat of use, that is to say making the argument that preemptive use is appropriate, making the first strike, is an insidious act of war.
Want another? Using armor piercing anti-tank shells employing the great weight of depleted uranium is, in fact, employing nuclear weapons, though it is not generally thought of in that way.
Upon impact, they vaporize and radioactive dust is disseminated for great distances. But they constitute a "dirty" nuclear device. If we use dirty bombs even on this scale, what happens to our argument against terrorists using dirty bombs in our cities and towns? We don't have a moral leg to stand on.
The same is true of using torture to obtain information from captured enemies. If we do that and it is allowed to stand, whatever the provocation, we sow the insidious seeds of our own defeat.
I guess the little hamster in my head was running on two legs. You are absolutely right about the depleted uranium rounds we use.
As for physical torture, it is pretty useless . Properly applied, you could get anyone to confess to anything. It doesn't make it true but it makes the pain go away.
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