# Was the United States government right at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2011, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355 "2011-10-21T13:39:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/41 "2011-10-22T08:51:27Z")
I don’t know, I mean, shoving it in a non-descript warehouse is possible the safest thing you can do. Put it in a box labeled “miscellaneous” on the stock ledger, stuff it in the corner of an average warehouse where NOBODY requests any box unless they’re looking for something specific, and it’s probably more safe than it would be in any heavily guarded facility this side of the SCP Foundation. I mean, you’ll never find it again, but this isn’t exactly the Hope Diamond you’re fucking with here, no amount of security will keep it safe short of an entire military backing. Making it known (museum, whatever) that you have the freaking _Ark of the Covenant_ is like wearing a giant “PLEASE INVADE ME AND TAKE MY PRECIOUS HISTORICAL ARTIFACT” button. Hell, I’m sure the Vatican would somehow find a way to assemble a standing army for that one. No, much better to forget the whole thing. Shame it wouldn’t be studied, and all, and I’d be all for it, but general knowledge that the Ark exists is just too dangerous, and even keeping it in a secure facility for research (DOD, high level clearance, whatever) is still quite unlikely to be safe when you’re working with what’s probably one of the most important, holy ancient treasures in existence. People would flip their lids and go crazy for a holy treasure of that magnitude even if it didn’t do anything other than sit and collect dust. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/42 "2011-10-22T09:30:39Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > So the government has 10s of thousands of OMG artifacts that are guarded so poorly (one guard shack IIRC) that a couple truck loads of americanized Nazi’s can get to it (and search for it) and escape without much trouble? > > I’d argue the fact the Alien was there was more of a movie joke for the fans than done to support the implication that everything there was supposed to something of an OMG it does crazy shit nature. Commies, not Nazis. Cunning Commie Bas$%$ds! ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/43 "2011-10-22T10:31:33Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Commies, not Nazis. > > Cunning Commie Bas$%$ds! You’re right. Their not quite so snappy uniforms should have tipped me off 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/44 "2011-10-22T11:01:51Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I think the most obvious explanation is the one on the screen; a big bureaucracy just stacks it away because they don’t know what else to do with it. That was my understanding too, with an added element of “What else have they got stashed in there???” to go along with it. Bear in mind _Raiders_ takes place in a world where the British Empire has no problems with the Nazis digging up historically important places in Egypt (then a British protectorate), engaging in running gun battles with the protaganist through the streets of Alexandria, and having U-boats intercept their shipping in the Meditteranean… it’s probably best not to look too closely into it. 😉 And while we’re at it, I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the boards my theory that Indy’s efforts throughout the film basically cause World War II as we know it to happen, or at least not be averted. If he hadn’t stopped the Ark being flown to Berlin, then Hitler would have been at the opening ceremony, likely with most of the other Nazi bigwigs and functionaries. Cue face-melting and Wrath of God, and WWII either doesn’t happen or is on a completely different scale to the one we know). ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/45 "2011-10-22T12:21:25Z")
They were wrong, if only for the simple fact that it wasn’t theirs to keep. It does not belong to the U.S. government any more than the Nefertiti Bust belongs to the Germans. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/46 "2011-10-22T17:38:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Bosda** : > Imagine George W. Bush with access to the Ark. > Or Nixon. > Or LBJ. OK, I’m imagining President Pelosi, President Ford, and President Humphrey, respectively. I’m not sure I get your point. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/47 "2011-10-22T18:23:24Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I didn’t really get the “right of conquest” bit out of it. For one thing, it’s inconsistent with the script. The Ark was not lost by the Israelites - **it was taken from them by an enemy that conquered them** , specifically the Egyptians, who were the ones that hid it in Tanis. If the Ark confers divine military might, it makes no sense that it was taken from them by force. It’s divine military force, but not given unconditionally. Both the nation as a whole and the king in particular need to be right with God for its power to be effective. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/48 "2011-10-22T19:00:22Z")
One bunch that captured it begged the Israelites to take it back. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/49 "2011-10-22T19:17:48Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > And while we’re at it, I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the boards my theory that Indy’s efforts throughout the film basically cause World War II as we know it to happen, or at least not be averted. Kind of like James Bond in Goldfinger – completely ineffectual? The bad guys’ plot would’ve been foiled just as well, if our hero had stayed home playing solitaire? ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/50 "2011-10-22T22:06:00Z")
I wonder if the Ark burned off the Army stenciling like it did with the Nazi emblems? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/51 "2011-10-22T22:13:23Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Everyone knows its @ Warehouse 13 - c’mon people, get with it already. Are you sure you don’t mean [Warehouse 23?](http://www.warehouse23.com/basement/) And as to the Ark’s Disposition, if the Top Men saw any of the surviving film(assuming there was any) from the first time it was opened, they’d see that the only way to effectively use it was to trick the Nazis into opening it. This would involve actually giving Hitler his artifact of power(and doom) and We’re not going to entrust this treasure to that psycho no matter how it will work out for us in the end. Better to file it and forget it. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/52 "2011-10-23T05:42:22Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Kind of like James Bond in Goldfinger – completely ineffectual? The bad guys’ plot would’ve been foiled just as well, if our hero had stayed home playing solitaire? I always thought Goldfinger’s plan was foiled by Pussy Galore being won over by Bond and dobbing Goldfinger in to the authorities (as well as switching the gas in the cannisters on their aeroplanes)? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/53 "2011-10-23T15:09:44Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I always thought Goldfinger’s plan was foiled by Pussy Galore being won over by Bond and dobbing Goldfinger in to the authorities (as well as switching the gas in the cannisters on their aeroplanes)? Well, yeah. That was Bond’s entire contribution – getting Pussy Galore to switch teams, in more ways than one. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/54 "2011-10-23T17:27:35Z")
i think it was the wrong thing. i mean, yeah the thing is dangerous but so are nuclear weapons. would you say that the ark is more devastating than the cumulative gigatons of nuclear warheads out there? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/55 "2011-10-23T17:49:02Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > In the Indy-verse, locking it up was probably a better option than trying to employ it during WW2. As we later saw with the Holy Grail, divine artifacts seem to have failsafes against abuse. Dropping it in the Pacific would be a better option than storage. Then again, would using it to push Hitler’s poop in count as abuse ? Since the Ark is a Jewish artifact symbolizing their special pact with the Big Guy, and Hitler was so very impolite with Jews, one would think the Tetragrammaton would be down with letting it be used to take him down a notch or twenty. In fact, it could even be used as God’s mood ring - whenever somebody thinks of sending America to war, let him first open the Ark on TV. If the Ark fries him to cinders, there you go, God did not approve of that plan 😃 ---
**Author:** ![glaeken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@glaeken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glaeken)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/56 "2011-10-24T15:03:10Z")
I always thought the idea was that the ark was something so dangerous and powerful that no amount of protection would be enough for it so the best protection ended up being no-one knowing where it was. Not even the people who in theory had possession of it knew where it was. They relied on the awesome powers of bureaucracy to lose it. No-one can attempt to steal it or sell the secret of its location if no-one knows where that thing is. I saw it as a realisation that the ark was so dangerous it even needed protecting from themselves. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/57 "2011-10-24T15:58:51Z")
Okay, now that explaination makes sense. Of course there is the danger the damn thing still turns up, but you could certainly argue that it is less than it being well protected but its whereabouts are know by some. But surely there was a volcano handy somewhere to chunk it into 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/58 "2011-10-24T16:12:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > One bunch that captured it begged the Israelites to take it back. 🙂 Because they were smitten with … hemorrhoids! :eek: 1st Samuel, chapter 5, verse 12. > **[Bible Gateway passage: 1 Samuel 5 - 21st Century King James Version](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%2BSamuel%2B5&version=KJ21)** > > And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when those of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon... > [@](#): > > And the men who died not were smitten with the hemorrhoids; and the cry of the city went up to heaven. Holy Hemorrhoids! That’s gotta hurt. Pass those Philistines an economy sized package of “Preparation H”. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/59 "2011-10-24T16:36:55Z")
It’s battlefield applications are really limited; it’s range seems to be only within eyesight, even the good guys have to keep their eyes closed while it’s open, thwarting the weapon is as simple as closing your eyes (how long do you think it’ll take everyone to figure out why American soldiers aren’t dying) it’s a damn liability as it can be captured or bombed (good god! What would happen if it was sitting in your barracks when it got blown up) Still, less than a decade later the Oak Ridge magnets would be running to isolate U 235 and while they were on they used about a quarter of the United States’ entire electric power output. The Arc appears to emit a large amount of electricity and who knows if theres a limit, just keep it in a room with no windows. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355/60 "2011-10-24T16:44:44Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Because they were smitten with … hemorrhoids! :eek: > > 1st Samuel, chapter 5, verse 12. That is so fucking awesome, Facebooked! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-united-states-government-right-at-the-end-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/600355.md?page=4)