I was born between generations, not quite child of the 80's but not quite Gen X and never really a Millennial either. I was born in 1980 and my immediate childhood I can remember a little, even at a young age, of the wind down of the Cold War. I remember as a child living in a decade where our supposed 'enemies' started to become our inspiration for laughs. Where by this 'War' had become a joke and had entered the entertainment sphere for inspiration of thousands of iconic moments from the 80's.
In Soviet Kos, orange squiggle clicks you
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I heard a report on NPR that the anniversary of the Missile Crisis is here and after being reminded of just how close to death we came I felt compelled to write something. It's a long read, I don't blame anyone for tl;dring it.
I am young enough that honestly, I can only remember the Cold War through the eyes of entertainment. I only vaguely remember the fall of the wall, and really any serious moment of 'war' I remember was the lights and flickers as anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky in Baghdad at the start of the Gulf War. It would be some years before I would read the history of how we got that war, where by we as a nation continued our long and stoic tradition of muddling in one thing, just to create another.
I was a pretty advanced kid, my teachers always told me I was very well read, and often would comment that I was 'beyond my years'. Some of this was the many, MANY, nights of staying up late and watching TV far inappropriate for an eight year old but with the prodding reminder from my dad that it was all 'fantasy' it got my curiosity burning. So a lot of this learning to be well read, I still really don't get that phrase, well a lot of it was consuming the thousands of thousands of pages inside the Encyclopedia Britannica my grand mother had, 72 edition if I remember right.
I remember reading about these moments in history, where by humanity had a choice before it. Where humans made decisions and the impact those decisions had. I loved consuming information and my parents often wondered if I would turn into a historian or tour the Jeopardy circuit. Jokes on them when I got a computer at age 12, now I fix the damn things. In any event, that curiosity got me thinking pragmatically, because through the lens of history one can see that there are always at least two sides to every conflict and that very often those choices one makes in said conflict can have unintended consequences.
Sometimes one has to look into the abyss to realize how utterly insane an action would be. Like 50 years ago when the world almost was committed to burning in the fires of destruction and turning all that is in it to ash. Instead rational men made rational decisions to pull back and see reason, to find humanity in each other. I mean really up to that point I had watched so many movies and seen so many shows that lampooned the 'Cold War' that to read about us actually coming > < that close.... it seemed scary and surreal. I would later read when slightly older that honestly had it not been for that whole Bay of Pigs fiasco, Castro would have never aligned so closely to Russia. Funny, the more we mess with things the worse they get. See, one choice in history that leads to another.
So I took what I read, and applied it to what I saw as I grew up. And really I saw how silly the whole thing was, and it seemed that those around me growing up with me saw it as well. I mean on one hand, we still had news outlets and various others talking about how the Soviets were still our enemies. Even Hollywood would got in on making a quick buck with movies like Rambo 3, you know the film where the Russians are bad, but the Afghan Mujahideen are good, right?
But then on the other hand, by the time that movie was out, our relations with Russia were cooling and eventually cooled to the point where they actually joined us in a coalition against Iraq in that first cold war. I saw it in the gobs of entertainment I consumed while growing up. Very often the whole US vs Russia was portrayed on the same level of seriousness as Boris and Natasha, take Rocky III for as a good example of that. An entire film that felt like an aging sports god, spinning yarns about how he played and about that one amazing game. It was released in 1982 well before the War ended, but both nations up to that point had already seen the writing on the wall, none just wanted to admit it yet.
Well defense contractors didn't want someone to admit it anyway.
So by the time I was a teenager my greatest threat was the acne on my forehead, and my 9th grade English teacher. Who by the way would continue to berate me on how I never used my full potential well until I graduated, sorry Ms Menses...you were right I should have done better and gone further....anyway.
So I honestly have no idea what its like to wake up every morning, turn on the TV or radio, and get reminded that you could die at any moment, and die in a giant fire ball of death. I try to understand, but it escapes me, what it must have been like living under constant pain of death. What nail biting moments that must have been back in 62. To huddle around a TV with your family wondering if at any minute, well in about 20-90 minutes depending on your location, that you might be incinerated and the world would end as you know it.
And I look at people born after myself, teens now coming up, who though while young, who witnessed 9/11 as children. Kids who might have understood to some degree, and because of that event grew up in a world where by their government and often parents, reminded them...they could die at any moment. Because we have, since that horrific moment in American history...up until this administration anyway, done a bang terrific job of reminding people they could die at any moment.
Fox news was literally a 24 hour dedication to how everyone in the world is out to kill you some way or some how. Sure you might not be incinerated in a nuclear fire (that's still on the table for one side too) but you could die from a bomb blast, or a plan crashing, or random gun fiends (who seem to be local grown btw), dirty bombs, or even chemical attacks. Which also by the way, you only need duct tape.....hey Tom Ridge said so right? And one side of the political spectrum still beats those war drums, even though we've had minimal attacks since then. And that the worst attacks we have had, are again our home grown loonies.
I wonder what the reaction would have been had the Aurora guy been slightly darker skin tone, I wonder if we could talk about gun control then. Things I ponder...anyway.
And it makes me wonder what kind of world, or nation it will create? Sure we have moved past it, this Administration has moved us forward and I think will continue to move us forward. We've healed international relations that took a bruising, done away with that stupid color coding kindergarten crap, and promised and committed to getting out of wars we had no business being in. However we have so much farther to go, and in that time we are going to start to see this generation that grew up in fear, start to take the wheel.
When I am older and these now soon to be late teens start to take positions of power, how will they lead? How will a decade of fear have shaped their persona and direction? How will a decade of war change their attitudes. Kids who witnessed history, saw their fathers and mothers go off to war, and now are growing into adults. They saw them go to war against an enemy that not even a few decade or so previous, we considered friends. You know, those unintended consequences of meddling in a region to muck up the other sides intentions. Those folks were the same people who would eventually go on to create the ripe situation for 9/11.
So as we wind down this war, as the troops come home, as their children grow up. As we a nation continue our healing from a disaster I want to send a message to those kids who grew up in that decade of fear.
Please, look back fifty years in our history and see how close we came to death, and when the next disaster happens or the next conflict arises please, just please. Take a step back, breathe, and then decide. Two men took a rational path that ensured your future then. So, when the time comes that you have to step up to the plate?
Just remember how close you came to never existing.