Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Irony. No. 1 in a series.
Technology for the nuclear (atomic) bomb and the technology to allow television broadcasts, were both discovered at about the same time – in the very early 40’s.
At that time, one can imagine that most people felt that the bomb would have the power to destroy the world.
And that they felt that television had the power to ‘save’ the world, through its ability to educate on a mass scale.
In fact, as pointed out by the unlikely Steve McQueen back in the day, the reverse has proved to be true.
The sheer scale of destruction capable with the nuclear bomb – as discovered by the Hiroshima ‘experiment’ – left the world in awe; fear to use it. It created the cold war. Had the nuclear bomb never been invented it is highly likely that Russia and the US would have been in a 'conventional' war with some fairly serious results and flow on effectys. Albeit swift, it could have made WW2 look like a kindergarten squabble.
Over the same era – the great saviour called television has hardly saved us.
It has dumbed us all down to a level that we just do not realise.
And it has served to feed a massive hunger for violence and crime and, indeed, it has promoted it to a disgusting degree.
It is one of the great ironies.
The world – for the last 50 years anyway, has been much safer, because of the bomb. Through the same era, our communities have become much less safe, because of television.
The safety delivered by the bomb however, will not be infinite. The technology is now within reach of very unsafe hands and it is my prediction that we will, sadly, witness a nuclear disaster of awesome (in the true sense of the word) consequence, by 2015.
Perhaps the Mayans’ predictions about December 2012 will prove to be correct.
But that is another story,
At that time, one can imagine that most people felt that the bomb would have the power to destroy the world.
And that they felt that television had the power to ‘save’ the world, through its ability to educate on a mass scale.
In fact, as pointed out by the unlikely Steve McQueen back in the day, the reverse has proved to be true.
The sheer scale of destruction capable with the nuclear bomb – as discovered by the Hiroshima ‘experiment’ – left the world in awe; fear to use it. It created the cold war. Had the nuclear bomb never been invented it is highly likely that Russia and the US would have been in a 'conventional' war with some fairly serious results and flow on effectys. Albeit swift, it could have made WW2 look like a kindergarten squabble.
Over the same era – the great saviour called television has hardly saved us.
It has dumbed us all down to a level that we just do not realise.
And it has served to feed a massive hunger for violence and crime and, indeed, it has promoted it to a disgusting degree.
It is one of the great ironies.
The world – for the last 50 years anyway, has been much safer, because of the bomb. Through the same era, our communities have become much less safe, because of television.
The safety delivered by the bomb however, will not be infinite. The technology is now within reach of very unsafe hands and it is my prediction that we will, sadly, witness a nuclear disaster of awesome (in the true sense of the word) consequence, by 2015.
Perhaps the Mayans’ predictions about December 2012 will prove to be correct.
But that is another story,
