Now listen to me, De Sadeski! Despite total mistrust and mutual - TopicsExpress



          

Now listen to me, De Sadeski! Despite total mistrust and mutual suspicion, we both place an incredible trust in each other; a trust far greater than disarmament and inspection would ever require. We trust each other to maintain the balance of terror, to behave rationally and to do nothing which would cause a war by accident or miscalculation or madness. Now this is a ridiculous trust, because even assuming we both had perfect intentions, we cannot honestly guarantee anything. There are too many fingers on the buttons. There are too many reasons both mechanical and human for the system to fail. What a marvelous thing for the fate of the world to depend on--a state of mind, a mood, a feeling, a moment of anger, an impulse, ten minutes of poor judgment, a sleepless night. President Merkin Muffley to the Soviet ambassador, p. 127, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963), a novel by Peter George, based on the screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and George. (Note: this is not from Georges 1958 novel Red Alert.)
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 15:34:46 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015