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Why We See Having Nukes And Guns So Very Differently
Humans design dangerous objects, one seems safe, the other seems terrifying — so how did we get it backward?
Very Unpopular Strong Opinions Blog by Christyl Rivers
It’s a MAD MAD MAD world
People are rightfully terrified of nuclear weapons. People also defend them on the grounds that when superpowers have them, they defer others from using them.
Hence, we keep trying to arrange something with Iran and carefully watch anyone in the room with a “big gun.”
It was a jolly little time of mutually assured destruction, MAD, that witnessed us pour all of our human energy into an arms race and almost none, relatively, into renewable and safe energy to deter a climate crisis.
Today, thanks to predictable human nature, we do not have mutually assured destruction. We have the destruction of the global north upon the global south. Those who can consume all goods and power snatch it up before the have-nots can get it. High classes hoard and lower classes suffer and die more.
We don’t have the mutual damage part, but we do have the assured destruction part.