Earlier this evening, on the tail end of a certain consciousness-expanding substance which decorum forbids me from directly referencing here, during a discussion with my friend, we came to this realization:
Nuclear weapons are the worst thing in the world. We must do everything we can to stop the use of nuclear weapons, including by the U.S. I had visualized a doomsday scenario of me looking out the window of my room here and seeing dozens of mushroom clouds in the distance, knowing that I’d never be safe no matter where I was; then to compound all of this the concept of “nuclear winter” came up (I don’t understand, really, what this means, but I hate the winter, so having to deal with one all the time would be horrible.) The use of a nuclear bomb or a neutron bomb or any huge-capacity bomb to eliminate thousands or millions of people is the most reprehensible thing anyone could ever do. I don’t know the specifics but my friend told me that the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were kiloton bombs, and that now we have a GIGATON bomb. The thought of this filled me with a sense of dread which was completely unbelievable, which I can’t describe here but which made me want to completely eliminate nuclear proliferation. Hearing Kerry describe nuclear proliferation as the world’s biggest threat secured my vote for him 100% (as if it was really in doubt anyway.)
We need to become extremely strong allies with Russia and encourage them to start ending the production of nukes and slowly getting rid of them as well. And we need to do whatever we can to make sure Iran doesn’t get nuclear bombs (I hate to say it, because it fouls up my point, but if this means bombing their reactors than so be it.) They absolutely cannot get nukes. We need to make sure that no Russian nukes fall into the hands of terrorists. We have to completely end nuclear bombs of any kind. We can’t ever bomb any innocent civilians to make a point to anyone. If we ever drop bombs on any enemy ever, they ought to be only on military targets that pose a serious threat, and even then we ought never to use any nuclear bombs with radiation which will spread, or posion gas, or any other things that kill innocent people and destroy the environment. The worst thing about nuclear bombs is that they can completely fuck up our natural ecosystem and lead to the extinction of animals, screw up food chains, completely destroy agriculture, and generally fuck everything up. We must completely eliminate nuclear weapons and we can never use them, EVER. My dad used to play a recording of a live concert called “NO NUKES,” sometime in the sixties, which was meant to make a political statement about how evil nuclear bombs are. This is the kind of thing we need to have now. Everyone ought to be trying to completely eliminate nuclear weapons of any kind; I don’t know what we’d do with them, but we have to get rid of them and we can’t keep making them and there needs to be no threat of any kinds ever of the whole world being destroyed because of some assholes pushing buttons in an underground bunker without any regard whatwsoever for the rest of society.
Isn’t PaulFitzroy around 15 years old? Lay off the kid, will ya?
Why not? Because ‘we’ don’t like ‘them’? Because ‘they’ don’t like ‘us’? Who made the US the arbiter of Nuclear Power? How do you propose we do it? What if they refuse to comply with our demands? Invasion time a-la Iraq?
It’s a little impossible to un-discover nuclear weapons. While it is physically possible to build them, chances are some one will do it. How do you propose we rid the entire world of all nuclear weapons? Short of ridding the entire world of nuclear weapons, how do you propose we prevent ‘terrorists’ from obtaining them?
I’m not sure whether you would be better off reading the responses in the same condition you wrote the OP or if you need to come down a bit, first.
Setting aside the issue that a college student is just now coming to realize that nukes are not a good thing (even being ignorant of the mechanics of a Nuclear Winter and apparently not being able to look it up), there do seem to be some assumptions made in the post that might need to be examined.
For example, there is a rather histrionic outburst regarding doing whatever it takes to prevent Iran from acquiring or developing nuclear weapons. I tend to support the idea of keeping weapons away from that country, but currently they do not have them. Where is the anguished cry that we must disarm North Korea (which, unlike Iran, is run by a true monomaniac who has already demonstrated a willingness to kill off masses of his own people to maintain a semblance of power whereas the Iranian mullahs continue to use mostly political means to maintain control of their country. Where are the cries that we must disarm Pakistan (run by a Muslim dictator) or India since both of those nations have aleady demonstrated a willingness to go to war over the Kashmir? Where is the demand that China and Israel give up their nuclear programs? How about South Africa?
I realize that we do not need to disarm the U.K., France, and Russia, (or ourselves) just yet, since we Europeans with our Christian traditions would never use nuclear weapons, but it does seem that the OP is just a bit skewed away from the plane of reality.
FYI
Just because it feels like consciousness expansion doesn’t mean that it actually is consciousness expansion. Consciousness expansion, like most other things, is only worth what you put into it. Efforts, experiences and time yeild better results faster than chemicals do.
Growth is a process, not an event.
mhendo, in fairness to Paul, the second quotation, posted earlier in one thread and quoted in yet another thread, has incurred a significant amount of derision from a wide assortment of Dopers (including what appears to be an official warning from the Staff) and has not been repeated in the last couple of days.
It is remotely possible that he has learned something in the meantime.
(Although that may be nothing more than to be more circumspect in his calls for violence, of course.)
No, it’s impossible to believe something one day and another thing the next. After all, isn’t that what we call “flip-flopping?” We must be firm and resolute and never, ever change our minds or learn from our mistakes.
If he had rescinded the earlier position, or apologized for it, or backed down from it even a little bit, i wouldn’t have made my post.
But, in his last post in the second thread on the topic, PaulFitzroy continues to rationalize his position by saying that all he is advocating is a “highly aggressive military policy.” He has never, to my knowledge, retracted his call for using a “neutron bomb” on Iran and Saudi Arabia, and yet he now says that this sort of action is reprehensible.
I’d hazard a guess that he must be suffering from cognitive dissonance, but then roger thornhill would get on my case.
You should all understand that I frequently post on this board, 1. under the influence of alcohol, 2. very, very late at night, and 3. when I’m very, very pissed off about something. All three of these things sometimes result in things being said that I don’t really mean; grossly exaggerated statements about blowing people up, for example, that are more a result of momentary unhappiness with the state of the world than a genuine political outlook. Nonetheless, when something I say draws condemnation, it is my nature to fight for my position vigorously rather than concede defeat (not out of a sense of conviction in my position so much as the belief that opinions cannot be changed with any amount of condemnation.) Will I admit that I was wrong about something? Maybe, but it will take more than everyone telling me that I was wrong to admit that I was wrong. I have my opinions, you have yours, and the two of them clashing with each other will result in no victory for either side. I do this to exercise my arguing skills and generally to see what happens. You can say that I “sound like an idiot” but I don’t care, I really don’t give a damn what I sound like as long as I can keep the ball of conversation rolling. You might think this is a very anti-social way of communication. That’s why it’s a good thing I limit it to this particular online forum.
I can guarantee one thing: if you were to run into me on the street of my hometown here, and have a chat with me, you would not recognize me at all. I am a very different guy in person versus in text.
