MAD World (repost)

There's this great magazine, MAD, but that's not the subject for today's short post; today I'd like to talk about the other MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction

I often go on a tangent about how the market economy and capitalism in general are, well, plain crazy. In my mind democracy cannot exist in capitalism and vice-versa. Democracy is now non-existent because money is the only real power left. Another way to say this is to simply recognize that every political party will always do what's best for the economy, and not what's best for the people. While we fool ourselves that what's best for the economy is what's best for the people. This paradox becomes apparent when environmental measures are rejected when they hurt some large economical interests, or when we say we want to reduce waste when economical growth demands the production of ever more needless stuff we throw away.

But we're human and we're resourceful, so we can do even better. Have you ever considered how dire our state of being as a species has become since the Cold War? I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, when there was a real fear that tomorrow the world could end. And although the Berlin Wall has fallen in 1989, nothing has changed really: if anything, there's now more than just the two "superpowers" that have nuclear weapons. It's become even worse, but somehow I don't see anyone fearing a nuclear war. Maybe we've become used to it consciously, but I'm sure this living with M.A.D. influences us on a subconscious level.

Let's explore the "reasoning" behind this military doctrine:

Mutual assured destruction or mutually assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.
_{source: Wikipedia}

Makes complete sense. That is until you consider that both sides would need to agree to not build any shelters for their citizens:

The doctrine requires that neither side construct shelters on a massive scale. If one side constructed a similar system of shelters, it would violate the MAD doctrine and destabilize the situation, because it would not have to fear the consequences of a second strike. The same principle is invoked against missile defense.
_{source: Wikipedia}

While maintaining this unstable "peace", the warring factions are "free" to engage in smaller military confrontations throughout the world, while their people could feel safe at home in the knowledge the war would stay in far away countries. Did anyone say "military-industrial complex"? It's just too screwed up to think about: governments deliberately not building shelters to maintain the effectiveness of each-other's threats...??!?

"Gentlemen!! You can't fight here. This is the WAR-room!!" This is one of the best and best known lines from Stanley Kubrick's 1964 masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. This delightful film is all about just how MAD this whole situation is. The story is about humanities darkest side, yet it manages to be extremely funny and masterfully filmed in glorious black-and-white. The trailer, linked below, is not that good, but the film itself is, in my mind, one of the best ever made. Strange that it's about one of humanities ugliest "achievements"... It's a MAD world we live in... When will people finally wake up? I hope I'll wake up tomorrow, and I hope you all will still be here to. See you then ;-)

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