You, your families, your friends and your countries are to be exterminated by the common decision of a few brutal but powerful men. To please these men, all the private affections, all the public hopes, all that has been achieved in art, and knowledge and thought and all that might be achieved hereafter is to be wiped out forever. Our ruined lifeless planet will continue for countless ages to circle aimlessly round the sun unredeemed by the joys and loves, the occasional wisdom and the power to create beauty which have given value to human life.
I was reminded of that quote in an episode of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast of 5th April. In it Dan and Annie Jacobsen discuss her book Nuclear War: A Scenario, published in March 2024.All the editorial reviews of this “instant bestseller” are positive. Here’s the one from Forbes:
“Timeless, masterful. . .A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller. Jacobsen expertly delivers a madman’s portrait of Armageddon, one made all the more impactful by the thought that it could literally occur at any moment. Almost novel-like in its presentation, Nuclear War: A Scenario represents the equivalent of an existential gut punch, a sickening and necessary reminder of how fragile every 21st century convenience becomes in the face of a blinding flash of light and near-instantaneous shockwave. Exhaustively researched and featuring interviews with professionals who truly understand just how close we continue to creep toward thermonuclear annihilation Nuclear War: A Scenario should be required reading for everyone alive today, especially for the politicians and policymakers who literally hold the precarious fate of our species in their hands.”
I doubt that many of us will read Jacobsen’s book — I haven’t. But I urge you to please listen to the book discussion. Here it is:
I stumbled across Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History channel years ago. I wrote a blog post, “The Destroyer of Worlds” in May 2020. You may wish to read that.
Prior to that, I wrote “Rationality in a World of Suicidally Deluded People” in February 2020. In it I discussed the idea of “MAD” — mutually assured destruction — that puts a brake on unthinking use of nuclear weapons. Here’s a bit from that:
MAD requires that the combatants are rational, and that they are more interested in their own survival than in the destruction of the opponents. But what if one of the combatants has only one motivation — to destroy the enemy even if it means that it itself will be wiped out? Essentially, it’s the strategy of the suicide bomber.
In a world of the likes of US, China, Russia, Israel and India, MAD has worked. But in a world of Islamic nations armed with nuclear weapons, it will not work. The Qur’anic command is to destroy non-believers, and if in the process the Islamic warrior is destroyed, he ends up in a nice place with 72 virgins for every male. In such a world, people who believe in that ideology are not deterred by the prospect that their own children will die.
The ongoing Israel-Gaza war illustrates that insanity. Hamas and its supporters are sincere in their claim that they love death more than Israelis love life. If these sort of people get their hands on nuclear weapons, MAD will not work.
It’s all karma, neh?