No, there is no such thing as nuclear paranoiaA true nuclear paranoia, although some nowadays insist on shifting it to the sound of Putin’s threats and the echo they found in his American colleague Joe Biden, who are content to be able to pronounce the words ‘armageddon’ and ‘nuclear’. in the same sentence. Let’s call it the missile belt, as at least another generation knows, when the crisis in Cuba was at the height of the Cold War, and when Americans made improvised shelters in the basements of their farms. In case the devil is knocking on Soviet doors. except that one, Never before in history has he been so afraid of its use. nuclear weapons within the framework of a war conflict and yet fear, paranoia does not spread. Better, of course: who wants a mass explosion of hysteria. But strange.
Viewers of ‘Bridge of Spies’ will remember the scene where Tom Hanks (attorney James Donovan) enters the bathroom and surprises his son by filling the bathtub. The year is 1957. When asked what he’s doing, the boy says that when war breaks out, “the first thing they’ll do” is cut off the water and electricity, so you need to top up with water as needed. You can do. Including the tub. The next conversation is filled with the panic of the little boy who at one point said: “When they drop the bomb, the reds will target the Empire State.. But the bomb will explode at 10,000 feet (…) If the bomb is 50 megatons, the blast wave will go out and go out and melt everything from here to here, including where we live…here” . “Here,” “here,” and “here” are pronounced by pointing to the dots of a primitive sketch. This is paranoia. Just like it was back then.
In the 21st century, its people do not seem to subscribe to such behavior, and the leader of the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world has made it clear that he can use his weapons if forced. Is it laziness? Fake laziness? Are people under anesthesia? “I think there is The key thing here is the generation factor.Says Carles Feixa, Professor of Social Anthropology at Pompeu Fabra University, and goes back to the WWII years to explain it. “The memory of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings influenced a generation that later nurtured the ranks of the military in the 60s. peace and anti-nuclear movementthen very powerful For the young or young adults today, events like this or the Cuban missile crisis are practically prehistoric. They are not as sensitive as the people who lived in those days.”
Another cinematographic moment, or rather a whole movie: ‘Don’t Look’, Adam McKay’s delusion that depicts a civilization about to be destroyed by an asteroid. That civilization that takes everything calmly instead of surrendering to hysteria. Politicians use it politically, social networks trivialize, information is questioned. But what matters here is civilization: man, the West, the 21st century. Spectacle society, social networks, fake news. “I think there is a big difference in the way we take on such a threat, and that is that we live in a society where people no longer know what to believe and where to believe. communication is no longer one-way, but multifaceted: a society where the credibility of traditional media is at stake”, says Feixa. Maybe it’s not that bad after all, some will say. Maybe they’re exaggerating, they’ll say.
People don’t know what to believe anymore, and that’s partly normal: It was about a week ago that President Biden made worldwide headlines with his statement that “the nuclear apocalypse is closer than ever since the crisis from Cuba’s missiles.” Two days later, it was revealed that his own National Security Council was out to block him. According to his spokesman, John Kirby, nothing was invited to change the country’s “existing strategic nuclear policy”, as the president’s statements were not based on any new intelligence data. “There is no new sign that Putin has decided to use nuclear weapons or is frankly considering such a decision,” he said. Back then? In this context, Feixa recalls: We live in a world full of nuclear and constant threats of all kinds.which never happens and when it does, no matter how serious, they “tend to have a local scope”. “Another theory that explains what happened is the wolf theory that came but never came. It should also be noted that there was a nuclear crisis in the 1980s when tensions between the USSR and the USA over the deployment of nuclear missiles in Europe once again gave rise to the idea of a possible nuclear war. But nothing happened in the end. I think that’s one reason why these types of threats depreciate.”
Yes, that’s right: some Ukrainians are designing bunkers in case of an attack, and Finland has asked the population to purchase iodine tablets to mitigate the effects of possible nuclear radiation. But is the world on the brink of hysteria? There will be those who say yes, and there will be those who joke while reading such articles. In other words: Will an asteroid end the Earth? Bah. There will be time to worry Therefore.
Source: Informacion
Brandon Hall is an author at “Social Bites”. He is a cultural aficionado who writes about the latest news and developments in the world of art, literature, music, and more. With a passion for the arts and a deep understanding of cultural trends, Brandon provides engaging and thought-provoking articles that keep his readers informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings in the cultural world.