We live in very interesting times. The world situation has always been precarious but rarely as precarious as today.

''It rather seems that so long as you live in the first world, your life is considerably safer than it was a generation ago. Those of us who grew up under the threat of MutuallyAssuredDestruction pretty much expected the whole planet to obliterate itself without warning. We expected that for many years.''

''These days we have little to concern ourselves with. Certainly the middle east might self-destruct. No more oil then - lots of things would change - but no real chance of human extinction in that. Japan might collapse. No more tiny radios - so sad, but we'll still sleep at night. The US waging a race war - heck, how short is your memory that you can't recall our internal racial struggles in the 1960s? It was far worse then.''

''No, even with the HypnoCrat''''''s in power, WorldWarThree is further off than it was not long ago. Zmag or no zmag. What you ought to be worried about, if you have a brain in your head, is TheBottleneck.''

And you think no one will try to resolve TheBottleneck by WorldWarThree?

Our world's international political situation is less stable now than it ever was when the SovietUnion was still around. The SovietUnion provided both counter-balance and stability. What will happen to our world if Fascism or some virulently nationalistic Communist party rises to power in Russia? The place is a hellhole now [90s] (all hail the IMF) and ripe for that sort of thing.

What happens if the USA stretches its military capabilities beyond the limits its decayed economy can sustain? What happens if the USA implodes on itself? What portion of the planet will the USA, with its thousands of nuclear weapons, take down with it then?

What happens if Japan takes down the whole of Asia with it when it implodes? What do you think China will do then? We're talking about conditions which can, at first glance at least, be compared to pre-WW2 and you dismiss them with "No more tiny radios - so sad."

I realize that worrying about nuclear destruction isn't as fashionable nowadays as ecological destruction, but please give the idea some thought.

''Oh heck yes to all that. The future is dreadfully uncertain. We all might be dead tomorrow. But this is nothing new, and things have looked worse. So?''

----

I wrote the section in italics above just before the 2000 election. MeaCulpa and plaudits to my antagonist. Now I see things like http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/19/cpac/index_np.html and http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/2/ and I realize things have not looked worse. Not since the thirties. Consider the parallels:

* The rise of a powerful OnePartyState led by a CharismaticDictator
* Economic regulatory failure pointing to GlobalDepression. Last month BillGates predicted, "the ol' dollar, it's gonna fall."
* Media monopolization and self-censorship
* Media demonization of cultural tolerance and civil rights as "liberalism" and their proponents as "traitors"
* Media demonization of a cultural minority as "evil doers"
* Functioning ConcentrationCamp''''''s for same
* RewrittenHistory: 
** the reds won the elections, 
** found the wmds, 
** fought the terrorists,
** and liberated their victims without bloodshed.

Now here's how it plays out: 

* The US demonizes then invades Iran. Iran is wealthy, strong and democratic - this is no longer a game of tiddly winks. Major military movements and millions of people displaced.
* A real shooting war starts in the Middle East. Oil supplies stop. The world economy crashes. The US proceeds on the strength of its oil reserve. The draft is justified on Fox News through the use of 1940s style propaganda - war-bonds and celebrity endorsements.
* The EU stands against the war and is promptly targeted via Turkey. China sides with EU and Russia with US. Japan and Vietnam play like Switzerland used to - they stand neutral. Australia goes with the US and another front opens in the pacific involving Philippines and Indonesia against Malaysia.
* The Korean peninsula blows away. Israel, Cuba and Taiwan are nuclear hostages. At least one hostage is nuked eventually, maybe all.
* The USA invades Venezuela to secure domestic oil supply. The rest of South America is pressured to become "allies". Another front opens and Amazonia is treated with Agent Orange.
* The USA becomes openly theocratic. "Liberals" and non-Christians are criminalized and interned.
* Chaos ensues and dominates the remainder of the decade. The only real winners are members of SkullAndBones.

''Alarmist nonsense. Everything is fine. Get back to OnTopic and don't worry about things you can't affect.''