Tuesday, March 04, 2008
The Nixon Mad Manoeuvre
So, it seems, Nixon and Kissinger tried to scare the Soviets into helping the US win Vietnam by flying B52s loaded with nukes around Soviet airspace for a few days back in 1969. This was based on game theory. The idea was to convince the Soviets that Nixon was just crazy enough to drop the bombs. They seem to have got the crazy message but not the ending the war thing. Of course, they could have just retaliated on the basis that the proximity of the planes gave them little choice. It seems to be another example of civilisation surviving by the skin of its teeth. We appear to be pushing our luck with alarming regularity. Perhaps we ought to stop doing this.... or just get it over with.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
It's probably for the best if the human race perishes. While i usually like people as individuals (to some degree), the human race considered from a distance is a pretty repugnant thing, akin to the 'virus' of Agent Smith's account in The Matrix.
ReplyDeleteWhen we're all gone things will be better. Well, they'll be worse, probably, because of all the nukes that'll start bleeding out, but in a few millions years the planet will recover from us.
Better for who, Elberry?
ReplyDeleteOr are you not human? (Visions of him pulling off a rubber humanoid mask to reveal...........)
Better for you too, Recusant. While you probably have some (understandable) qualms about submitting to extinction, once you're dead you'll realise how much better things are that way, not just for animals but for your own happiness & sense of well-being.
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