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May 8, 2005

The Language Of Doom

I always wonder why most people barely care about "nuclear proliferation". Is it because the name is so mundane? What would be a suitable chilling phrase to refer to the widespread acquisition of nuclear weapons by the petty, the bitter, the paranoid and the xenophobic?

Perhaps if the possibility kept more people awake at night, our leaders would give it more serious attention. Honestly, one of the main reasons I was (and am) against the war in Iraq is that it's distracted the world, and especially the USA, from the far more serious problem of North Korea. But I can hardly blame politicians for that when most of their voters could hardly care less. It seems inevitable that nothing much will be done until we lose a major city to terrorists or an accident. I expect it will be New York or Washington. Unfortunately by then it will be very hard to turn things around.

Posted by roc at May 8, 2005 5:54 PM

Comments

This is why I'm a little dicey about being in London right now. I'd hate to think that the politics of fear had reduced me to a quivering wreck, but it's clear that containment has failed.
All sorts of people have their hands on a 60 year old technology and it's only the matter of time before someone gets sufficently pissed off enough to use it somewhere.
Well-funded, wacky religious people seem to dominate the agenda from this point. And I thought I was more worried about the global economy!

Posted by: Adam at May 11, 2005 6:07 AM