Nuclear irresponsibility
by, Naseer Ahmed
‘The prospect for the human race is sombre beyond all precedent. Mankind are faced with a clear-cut alternative: either we shall all perish, or we shall have to acquire some slight degree of common sense. A great deal of new political thinking will be necessary if utter disaster is to be averted.
Bertrand Russel
Once upon a time, old Bertie ran a vigorous campaign against nuclear war. It is time to do it again. It is sad that no old grandpa around to shame the brats into reason. In fact, these days, most grandpas are brats themselves.
Recently, US president Donald Trump and North Korean tyrant Kim Jong – un are into nuclear threat escalation. Kim keeps showing off his nuclear weapon capabilities and Trump promises a total destruction of the North Korea to the rocket man (Trump’s derisive name to the tyrant).
Trump and that tyrant from North Korea are same kind of personalities. That tyrant is a bit like a fraudster who returns money only when he is absolutely sure that he would lose his life if he does not return his loot.
And Trump is a kind of person who could be only reasonable when he thinks he is going to lose coverage in the media.
It seems that tyrant is safe and sound and Trump would keep getting his coverage. Without any real risks to their power and fame in their respective countries, they would keep threatening each other.
That means there are plenty of chances they might end up with some catastrophe.
This possibility of nuclear catastrophe is a consequence of unbridled selfishness which itself is consequence of damaging democracy. That is a result of big corporations working as life coaches.
They have promoted a success model which is based upon unbridled selfishness and indifference to human suffering. That is a kind of breeding ground where catastrophes thrive.
Both of these leaders are shaped and guided by ‘perception is reality’ age where personal desires are stronger than objective facts. It is easy to destroy reality with reality TV.
By destroying the facts and reason reality TV has promoted unbridled selfishness and indifference to human suffering in such a big way that it is almost possible to make all kind of narcissist and tyrants to see sense. To make things worse these narcissist and tyrants are the leaders of some states with nuclear weapons. It seems we are all fired. Real tough situation, I guess.
This kind of brinkmanship was real dangerous with people like Kennedy and Khrushchev during the Cuba Missile crisis in 1960s. They were not mad but their brinkmanship was also a close call.
Here, we have real mad people who do not give a toss to the rest of the world as long as they are powerful, rich and in the news.
There was always this fear that someday some madmen would have their hands on the nuclear buttons. It seems those madmen have arrived.
Now the tyrant from North Korea cannot back down because if he backs down he might lose his pretensions about being fearless. On the other side, Trump is a prisoner of Breitbart news( a fascist news group) .For their approval he is ready to do everything.
Last time, he took his good words on racism back because Brietbart started to portray him as a traitor. Although his principled stance lead them to think about going underground but when you are an approval prisoner, the good from you depends upon the people who approve you and the Breitbart are not the people who approve anything good or reasonable.
Both Trump and the tyrant from North Korea are such brats that nobody could say to them what they don’t want to hear. Trump fires and the tyrant murders.
This is an ego clash between two dangerous narcissists supported by a mad variety of nationalism. It seems that North Korean philosophy Juche Juche( self reliance) and ‘ America First’ might result in millions of human deaths and an irreparable damage to all forms of life.
Other super powers should make sure that nuclear brinkmanship is not an option. It is not I would stare you down competition. It is about the survival of life itself on the planet.
In fact all super powers need to listen a sane advice from another darkest chapter in human history.
The story goes like this. When Old Mongol Kha Khan Genghis Khan started to destroy almost every city on his way, his Chinese advisor told him’ Oh Great Kha Khan if you are going to kill all of them, who are you going to rule over’?
The great Kha Khan listened to this advice and started to spare a city or two whenever he felt like pleasing his adviser a bit. I mean it would be tough to have an ego clash without life on the planet. Therefore, it is necessary not to use nuclear weapons as blackmailing chips. The moment somebody threatens a nuclear war, rest of the world should take it quite seriously. These threats could become deeds.
This nuclear threat war between the tyrant and Trump is grave and leads to important questions about corporations and tyrants. We need to reject this unbridled selfishness promoted by corporations. It is leading us to annihilation. We are too much into hysterics and tantrums that we cannot be serious and wise even about nuclear warfare.
It would take a long time to sort out unbridled selfishness, tyranny and nuclear disarmament. Right now, we work upon a version of diplomacy where these powerful states need to make sure that nuclear escalation is not a plaything. If brinkmanship does not work, the life is itself in danger.
In order to reduce this danger, we need a strong campaign against nuclear weapons from the leading scientists and philosophers supported by everybody who loves life and the planet that supports the life.