Horrors of late capitalism

[ShutUpLutz!]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

It was long ago and we were clueless little kids in the 1950s. It seems to me that the fear of imminent nuclear war was greatly reduced after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The leaders put in safeguards and it was obvious that neither side wanted to preside over a smoldering ruin of a country.

Well you still had absolute nutjob war criminals like Curtis LeMay and Tommy Powers in high positions at the Air Force, who routinely tried to bait the Soviets into launching a nuclear attack.

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by ShutUpLutz!

Well you still had absolute nutjob war criminals like Curtis LeMay and Tommy Powers in high positions at the Air Force, who routinely tried to bait the Soviets into launching a nuclear attack.

It is just as well that we didn't really understand what the air raid drills were all about at the time..

It is easy to condemn LeMay, Powers, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and "General Buck Turgidson", but if you were charged with fighting the Nazis, Imperial Japan, and Stalinist Russia nice guys couldn't get the job done. Ugly stuff.

My recently departed friend who survived Vietnam duty couldn't stop to weigh the moral niceties. His father, who had been a World War II Army Ranger, told him, "Come back alive, son." He did. To his credit, he pulled down his weapon to stop other members of his unit from committing war crimes. Many heroes like this went unremarked.

[charliels531]

Originally Posted by ShutUpLutz!

I was born, sort of near the middle of the last century, and we had one of those sirens on a pole on the grounds of my elementary school and it would go off once a month at some random time and no one spazzed out or panicked when it did, it was more annoying than anything else. I've read on other message boards how all the kids who grew up in the 79's and 80's lived in constant fear that Reagan would push the button or of nukes in general. That was news to me and I grew up outside the city (Washington DC) that probably had the most nukes targeted on it, besides Moscow. I was never afraid or fearful and neither were my parents.

Because we were smart and educated.

I doubt anyone panicked. It was simply a foreboding presence.

One reason for your lack of concern may have been that "education". Throughout the period the "experts" grossly underestimated both the likelihood of accidental war and the effects of the war. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the science demonstrated that an exchange of 100 ten-megaton bombs would have ended human life in the northern hemisphere.

[ShutUpLutz!]

Originally Posted by charliels531

I doubt anyone panicked. It was simply a foreboding presence.

One reason for your lack of concern may have been that "education". Throughout the period the "experts" grossly underestimated both the likelihood of accidental war and the effects of the war. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the science demonstrated that an exchange of 100 ten-megaton bombs would have ended human life in the northern hemisphere.

I never had a foreboding feeling about nuclear war and neither did any of my friends or relatives, and my uncle was commander of a submarine.

I do recall watching 'The Day After' and think that one of the ending scenes when Jason Robards goes back to his city/town and gets all screamy at someone trying to rob the remains of his house or whatever, that that particular part was bullshit, the radiation levels would have been way too high, but also the infrastructure of the country had collapsed so there weren't nearly enough law enforcement/troops to keep people form going where they shouldn't.

And I would notice when we went to one of the library branches in our county, the building across the street had one of those fallout shelter signs on the wall by the entrance.

It's easy to look back now, with the stories about the close calls that happened at the time that we didn't know/hear about and project how everyone was fearful/terrified/scared, but that is bullshit. We weren't.

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by ShutUpLutz!

It's easy to look back now, with the stories about the close calls that happened at the time that we didn't know/hear about and project how everyone was fearful/terrified/scared, but that is bullshit. We weren't.

I live in California. Most of us only worry about earthquakes when the ground starts to shake.

[footstep]

Most of giant don't pay taxes.
Beautiful, ain't it?

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by ShutUpLutz!

I was born, sort of near the middle of the last century, and we had one of those sirens on a pole on the grounds of my elementary school and it would go off once a month at some random time and no one spazzed out or panicked when it did, it was more annoying than anything else. I've read on other message boards how all the kids who grew up in the 79's and 80's lived in constant fear that Reagan would push the button or of nukes in general. That was news to me and I grew up outside the city (Washington DC) that probably had the most nukes targeted on it, besides Moscow. I was never afraid or fearful and neither were my parents.

Because we were smart and educated.

In my country, we still have sirens tests each year.
I'm not kidding.
In the average, the Swiss population is highly constituted by paranoid people.

Originally Posted by footstep

Most of giant don't pay taxes.
Beautiful, ain't it?

It seems that Bezos could have to pay a 50% wealth tax to his ex-wife recently.


Could we consider divorce as a form of capitalist run-off?

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

In my country, we still have sirens tests each year.
I'm not kidding.
In the average, the Swiss population is highly constituted by paranoid people.

We have siren tests here too in the summer, but they are for tornadoes, not invading Germans.

Originally Posted by xyzde69

It seems that Bezos could have to pay a 50% wealth tax to his ex-wife recently.


Could we consider divorce as a form of capitalist run-off?

She'll spend it all on luxuries, like fur coats and diamond jewelry and expensive vacation condos, so she'll keep the luxury capitalist system moving right along.

[Roubignol]

Late Capitalism still have very few intelligent and constructive projects.

[Sir Honkers]

I'm keeping a list of who posts in this thread and you're all going to be put up against the wall and shot when The Revolutions comes. Capitalist pigs of the running American dogs!