[lit-ideas] Re: National Symbols
- From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 07:52:39 +0900
Lawrence,
I didn't dislike the analogy. I called it idiotic, as any analogy that
reduces interactions between nations composed of tens of millions of
people in a context that includes billions of people and a good many
other interested parties (nations, coprorations, that sort of thing)
to two men sitting at a table is sure to be.
The man with the already loaded gun could shoot the madman who is
still loading his weapon and, the analogy seems to say, walk away with
his problem solved. Or, if an honorable sort, he might try first to
say to the madman, "Give me that gun or I'll shoot you," though, given
that the other is, we are lead to believe, mad, this amounts to little
more than sugar coating the shooting.
MAD says, you are mad, I'm mad, too. The difference between us is that
I don't just have a gun, I have a whole huge arsenal, and even if you
manage to shoot me first, the sure and inevitable result will be the
obliteration of you and everything that you hold dear.
Besides, while we wait, all sorts of things may happen. According to
Garette Mattingly, Elizabeth I made it a point to temporize whenever
she could, knowing that most problems would simply go away. She
prepared her country for those that wouldn't, and, when at last, the
Armada came, the Armada was soundly defeated. For four decades of Cold
War, we lived and, truth be told, thrived under threat of nuclear
annihilation. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, the Berlin Wall came
down.
Why are you so frightened of a country that surely poses a much
smaller threat than the USSR or Red China did? Their leader is mad,
you say. So were Stalin and Mao. Their warriors are fanatics, you say.
The sons and grandsons of the kamikaze are now, largely peace-loving
wimps. Given nuclear power and lots and lots of consumer goods, the
mullahs' descendants will go the same way.
Worst case. They kill a few tens of thousands of us. We utterly
destroy them, but still come off looking like the good guys. We have
the moral upper hand and a very credible threat, indeed, for the next
round if, God forbid, there is one.
Get a little ice in your veins. Get over the cowboy bullshit.
John
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama 220-0006, JAPAN
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