I really don’t support Biden politically, he was so arrogantly dismissive in the debates when other democratic candidates spoke of health care reform, that really put me off of him as a politician. That said, I really did feel like I was holding my breath yesterday waiting for the nuclear suitcase to be handed over. Unlike Trump, I don’t really fear that Biden will use the bomb. This sense of fear inspired me to write my congresswoman for the first time ever. I asked her to get rid of the US’s nuclear arsenal. Nukes, are so utterly pointless. Practically speaking, using a nuclear weapon in today’s world is like using a hand grenade against a car thief. Morally speaking, it is like attacking a plantation owner by killing his slaves.
It is a really peculiar world we live in. The Geneva convention exists, to tell us that we must only kill, we cannot maim (no chemical weapons) and in the USA Executive Order 12333 forbids the government from assassinating politicians. They can start wars killing thousands, but they will not assassinate a single tyrant at the top. In today’s world we kill the slaves but never the plantation owner.
Not to long ago I decided to watch a Star Wars film. I don’t know why, I just did. It was “The rise of Skywalker”. I seem to remember the films as being better, but this one was rather terrible. Particularly interesting though, was the ultimate scene. Jedi master Rey faces up against the Sith lord. We are faced with a “moral battle” in which the Sith lord challenges her(Rey) to kill him, since she is so morally strong and peaceful, she refrains from doing so. During this very scene, however, she turns around and kills around 7 clones. I guess their lives were lower in the hierarchy of worth than the Sith lord’s life. Just like the lives of the Russian civilians who would be killed by an American nuclear attack are also lower in the hierarchy than Putin’s. Or, perhaps, just like the lives of youths and minorities in the eyes of American police… Or perhaps, the lives of the pigs and cows and chickens that we eat.
This hierarchy of worth is a fickle thing. Make it too steep and only the rich and highly intelligent deserve to live, set it too shallow and you find yourself apologizing to the mosquito as you slap it from your wrist. I don’t know the ideal hierarchy of worth. I tend to play things safe, by being vegan, and respecting even the bugs that cross my path, but I truly do not know if life has value, and if so, which life has value. What is clear to me, however, is that the taking of a life is an important decision. It should never be done indiscriminately… And there exists no more indiscriminate killing machine than a nuclear weapon. These bombs and missiles should be destroyed.
(This is an image from the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. I highly recomend the film. It is one of the most acurate depictions of Trumpism to ever hit the silver screen. The communist floride conspiracy theory is perhaps the most fitting part of the film.)