Monday, October 26, 2015

Mutually Assured Destruction Requires Intelligence

Given my view that IQ has been dropping in the West since Victorian times, and that various people in D.C. tend to say stupid things, I have been worrying that the general intelligence of those in charge of pushing the buttons may drop to the point where some idiot may actually push the button.

This would be an interesting addition to the hypotheses that various people have about humanity rising to a certain level of technology over and over, only to sink back down into abject, global poverty over and over again. Seems nutty, but so did a Trump presidency just a little while ago. Now a Trump presidency looks like the best of a bad lot.

M.A.D requires people in charge who are intelligent enough to think through actions and consequences. Do we see much of this in D.C.?

2 comments:

Nathaniel said...

Well, liberals are the ones always arguing for suicidal disarmament. They also hate concealed carry laws. Maybe they don't trust themselves?

August said...

Obama's administration seems disturbingly like fiction- i.e. West Wing, where drone strikes and assassinations seemed perfectly acceptable because they were the righteous ones. Now the troubling thought is that they or the neocons would think they could win a nuclear conflict.
The might either think the ensuing damage from retribution would be minimal, or they might welcome the destruction if they thought they could save themselves and wreak havoc on their political enemies.