Blog Post 3

“Second Variety” was a very good story. In my opinion, the moral of it is that the creation of atomic weapons that can bring about the apocalypse will one day surely bring about the apocalypse. All it takes is one action, just one press of a button to initiate it. Sometimes, however, I must admit that I disagree with this. I definitely do not believe the U.S. will fire one off first again (even though we HAD to do so during WWII, despite what some people may say). I don’t even think the governments of countries like Iran and North Korea would. Why? Because even though the dictators who control those countries may be complete assholes to their own people, they’re definitely not stupid. If anything, they’re greedy as hell. Most people in power, including those in our own country, care only about two things: power and wealth. If they were to fire off a nuke today (as opposed to the weak ones dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and start a chain reaction of countries firing off nukes at one another in the process, then they wouldn’t have the means to continue acquiring more power and wealth because the majority of the people on the planet would be dead. Sure they (the world’s rulers) could travel to the moon, or move underground, but with everyone gone, is their money really worth anything? Do they really possess the kind of power they had when 7 billion people roamed the planet? Obviously not. In the advent of nuclear technology, people used to say that these bombs would be able to deter war. That too obviously hasn’t turned out to be the case. If anything, the destructive power of nuclear bombs simply deter people from using them.  With that said, I think “Second Variety” is a great story. Sure it’s entertaining, but its message is also one that should definitely be heeded. The reason I say this is because if a nuclear weapon (or codes) was to get in the hands of the wrong person, say, a religious fanatic who doesn’t care about power or wealth or anything this world as to offer, then we’re all definitely screwed. From that standpoint, I couldn’t be in more agreement with the moral of this story.