In Thinking Strategically, Ray Matsumiya, an educator about the Bomb and its continuing after effects, whose family is from Hiroshima and who were victims of the blast, asks Chomsky if there are practical steps the US can take to eliminate nuclear weapons at home, Chomsky noted, first, the obvious -- land-based missiles are targets for attacks, but are strategically unnecessary, saying that submarines and aircraft are more than sufficient to end the world. Land-based missiles are just purposeless crosshairs. Chomsksy tells Matsumiya,
The land-based [missiles] are known by strategic analysts to be both useless and dangerous... In fact, people who have investigated the [land-based] Minuteman bases say that the soldiers who are in charge know perfectly that this is a dead end. There is no point in these things. They don't pay any attention to it. They don't bother guarding them. They are off doing something else. It's a very dangerous phenomenon and useless.
Gone fly fishin' signs hangin' on the doorknobs of the siloes. Hmph.
In the end, as the title suggests, for Chomsky the solutions to our global woes are to be sought in international cooperative agreements, the sooner the better, time is almost up. During the Reagan era, the Doomsday Clock was set to Three Minutes to Midnight. After Trump took office the Clock was re-set again to 100 seconds -- we'd lost 80 seconds off the Clock in 4 years. Chomsky wants to believe the kids can get it right -- educate themselves and others, demand legislative, ethical and practical changes to slow down the speed with which we have thrust the future generations into the horror show ahead. If necessary, the kids should push the lying geezers out of the f*cking way. He that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. And stuff.
Soon we may be seeking two bedroom spider holes of our own through the Morlock Real Estate Agency. Personally, I hope to make it back to Cappadocia. There's a city there with my name on it. Ararat wine, swimming pool. If I put my back into it, I may be able to roll that big ball of rock up against the entry and block out the world forever, become like one of the blind, monkish golden catfish of the Kalahari. I'm sure there's a link somewhere.
A companion site to the "Chomsky Event" reviewed above is at ChomskySpeaks.org. It's recommended.
In addition, readers may find the books, documents and films available at the Anarchist Film Archive inspiring.
(Article changed on December 18, 2020 at 11:10)
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