MAD? Not any more....

[Luddite]

The Beeb have an interesting article on Mutually Assured Destruction and its place in our society here.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17026538

I always wonder why, when i read stories like this.  Are the Beeb ramping up the nuclear fear again because of the impending Israeli strike on Iran?

Interestingly, here's the current BBC News leader info on Google:

Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and ...

Bangkok blast suspects 'targeting Israeli diplomats'‎‏‎ - ‎‏‎4 hours ago
West Bank crash: 'Eight' Palestinian children killed‎‏‎ - ‎‏‎2 hours ago
Who is behind Israel's embassy attacks?‎‏‎ - ‎‏‎2 days ago  

Ramping up the propaganda there??


So what do you think?  Why have we forgotten about all that MAD, duck and cover, The War Game and Threads scared the snot out of me, stuff?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It was the word 'mutually' that always got me! That and 'assured', that means it's going to happen, on matter what...
I grew up in the shadows of Regan, living with a Mother who was seriously into CND, i was petrified, and still am! Threads, When the Wind Blows and Wargames - how scary!
'Would you like a nice game of chess?'

[Luddite]

Aye, i grew up near Greenham Common.

Actually there were three primary targets around my area, so that if you put the secondary blast zones on a map, it created a venn diagram with my hometown right in the central sector...

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

I remember looking at Soviet ICBM blast radii etc in the late 70s/early 80s - but as in those days I lived a mile or so from an RAF station and in line of sight ...

Regards

Edward

[lentulus]

Attached is the Cold War Exhibit at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.  Captures the world I grew up in, down to the civil defense films at the county agricultural fair.

As far as the news goes, remember if the editor buys one "threat of war" story you might be able to get him to buy another.  Career progress in the news business consists of getting your 30 seconds on a regular basis.  Preferably with an video.

[Hertsblue]

When I was a kid in the fifties I remember there was a scare that nuclear bomb testing was actually changing the weather patterns. So there you are - MAD and Global Warming combined in one goulish package. And what happened to the famous hole in the ozone-layer?

The human race needs something to worry about, otherwise it gets worried. The media are there to feed that paranoia, at a small fee. It's all smoke and mirrors. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

NUKES!
ZOMBIES!
BIRD FLU!
EGGS!
TRADE UNIONS ON STRIKE!
LEAD FIGURE CASTERS
See - we can be paranoid about anything!

[goat major]

Damn you - focus on the impending meteor strike !!!

[Techno]

The human race needs something to worry about, otherwise it gets worried. The media are there to feed that paranoia, at a small fee. It's all smoke and mirrors. 

Totally agree Ray !

Lemmy .....You forgot swine flu....Wasn't the World's population going to be completely decimated by that a couple of years ago ?
EEEEK !....What meteor strike ?....Better start stocking up on food and bottled water....Time to go and empty the supermarket shelves.
In despair - Phil.

[lentulus]

And what happened to the famous hole in the ozone-layer?

Appears to have peaked about 2006 -- the Montreal Protocol and the banning of CFCs may have worked.  Of course, like anything that works, afterwards the nay-sayers are certain there was never a problem.  Consider the guy who was interviewed just before the Mont St Helens eruption saying the geologists were full of it; he's under some hundreds of feet of ash right now.