dagblog - Comments for "A Strangelove Kind of World"

Dr. Strangelove was not

Elusive Trope — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:10:49 +0000

In reply to I guess I remember the above

Dr. Strangelove was not really that strange.

Kubrick's statement (and supposively he did a whole bunch of research on the subject prior to write on the subject) truly sums it up.

My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay. I found that in trying to put meat on the bones and to imagine the scenes fully, one had to keep leaving out of it things which were either absurd or paradoxical, in order to keep it from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question…. The things you laugh at were really the heart of the paradoxical practices that make a nuclear war possible.

The wars fought in places in

Elusive Trope — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:06:30 +0000

In reply to You mean if the bomb had gone

The wars fought in places in Angola were proxy wars and part of the overall chess match between the US and the Soviets, of which nuclear deterrence was a part of it. I guess I would say, although one might not agree, that one couldn't have one without the other. Angola and other places like it were the safety valve that allowed the two sides to take each other on without actually going at one-on-one.

And I suppose even though I call such things madness and insane, at the same time, I wouldn't advocate abolishing the US military. So I support the madness, being an insane world, I suppose we just have to learn how to better facilitate the asylum so the patients actually start to become more healthy rather than decompensate further into their madness.

I guess I remember the above

EmmaZahn — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:49:06 +0000

In reply to Or it may be that given

I guess I remember the above two crashes because they were close to home but there were many more:

List of military nuclear accidents - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Strangelove was not really that strange.

The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash

EmmaZahn — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:41:35 +0000

In reply to Or it may be that given

The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on January 24, 1961. A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process.[2] The captain ordered the crew to eject, which they did at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Five men successfully ejected or bailed out of the aircraft and landed safely. Another ejected but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash.[3] Controversy continues to surround the event as information newly declassified in 2013 reinforced long-held, public suspicions that one of the bombs came very close to detonating.

The Tybee Island B-47 crash

EmmaZahn — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:24:32 +0000

In reply to Or it may be that given

The Tybee Island B-47 crash was an incident on February 5, 1958, in which the United States Air Force lost a 7,600-pound (3,400 kg) Mark 15 nuclear bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, United States. During a practice exercise, the B-47 bomber carrying the bomb collided in midair with an F-86 fighter plane. To protect the aircrew from a possible detonation in the event of a crash, the bomb was jettisoned. Following several unsuccessful searches, the bomb was presumed lost somewhere in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.

You mean if the bomb had gone

Aaron Carine — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:23:56 +0000

In reply to Or it may be that given

You mean if the bomb had gone off and incinerated London or New York? That would certainly have an effect on my view of deterrence, but it didn't happen.

I deplore what the United States did in Angola(during the 1980s, I was aware that the land mines were blowing up a terrifying number of Angolans), and also what the United States did in Central America, Vietnam, Korea, and other places. I was only talking about nuclear deterrence; American military interventionism is another can of worms. Although I guess we can say that American wars are the "price" of having a military. That is one reason I now want to abolish the U.S. military--in the past it was doing good as well as evil, but now that we no longer need protection from the Soviets, the evil far outweighs the good.

George C Scott was just one

Elusive Trope — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:19:41 +0000

In reply to Strangelove is so very

George C Scott was just one of the brilliant actors in this movie. He played General "Buck" Turgidson not as a buffoon but was able to show how even those with a good head on their shoulders could get tunnel vision. One of the other great lines in the movie:

Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!

It is a wonder that film was made. As Denby points out

Columbia Pictures produced the movie; nothing like “Strangelove” had ever been made before by big-studio Hollywood.

I wish I could back and watch the reaction of the people to the movie, especially as the ending song and montage of mushroom clouds filled the screen:

Or it may be that given

Elusive Trope — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:01:17 +0000

In reply to It seems to me that the arms

Or it may be that given humans being humans, a strategy of madness will sometimes be effective. I agree that mutual deterrence on level - although we continued to use surrogates, like Angola, to fight it out, so it wasn't done without a loss of life and suffering (the land mines left behind from this conflict still remain a source of danger and mutilation, today). Acceptable? In the end, the Soviet Union fell and we seemed to avoid an all out nuclear war. But there is a little river of radiated underground water moving toward the Columbia River, which will someday itself be contaminated as result of the arms race.

One thing that we have to remember, as Denby pointed out:

Twenty-four hours a day, at least a few bombers, fully loaded with nuclear weapons, were aloft, as a way of warding off a Soviet sneak attack.

What would your reaction been had one of these planes suffered a malfunction and crashed into London or New York or some Midwest area of this country. Would that have just the cost of deterrence, no reason to get too upset, worthy of an investigation to figure out why, but no reason to stop the practice?

It seems to me that the arms

Aaron Carine — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:46:48 +0000

In reply to A Strangelove Kind of World

It seems to me that the arms race has been vindicated--more or less. It was a major reason for the fall of the Soviet Union(former commissars who said this are quoted in Peter Schweizer's book Victory). If it works, it's not madness.

I regard myself as basically "left", but we have to learn from events, and in this matter, the hawks have scored some points.(I think it was Peter who said that I wasn't leftish on the economy. I think I qualify as liberal on the economy, but yes, I'm definitely not radical).

Strangelove is so very

Richard Day — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 06:08:16 +0000

In reply to A Strangelove Kind of World

Strangelove is so very strange.

I have no idea how it was published anymore than Catch 22?

And just think of the term 'strange love'?

When George C. Scott just goes ahead in the 'bunker' and suggests that only 20 or 30 million (tops) would die in a nuclear war....it is terrible but I cannot stop laughing and yet the Kennedys really faced this possibility.

McCain and his manfriend from South Carolina would send us all into Armageddon by attacking ten countries at once....

I really feel that 'neocons' came to the conclusion that with tech wars, we could only lose five or ten thousand soldiers so everything was just fine.

And so Cheney lives with the belief that corps could make hundreds of billions of dollars and only 'a few' lives would be lost; a few of 'us' anyway.

Anyway, well done!

That's all I got in the middle of the night.