Lessons I'm Going
To Teach My Kids
Too Late #53
On my 15th birthday, the world did not end.
My mom took me and a few friends out for pizza, then we watched Return of the Jedi at the local theatre. For a few hours, I forgot I was a depressed, pimply, wildly-unpopular high school nerd. Instead, I was the swashbuckling hero, battling my way across the galaxy against insurmountable odds, defeating the forces of evil amid lots of cool-looking explosions and laser fire.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a Soviet officer named Stanislav Petrov actually saved the entire fucking world.
In September 1983, American–Soviet relations were strained to say the least. Caught up in the Mutually Assured Destruction mindset, each country kept building up their nuclear arsenals with more missiles, better missiles, capable of hitting more targets farther away more quickly. U.S. president Ronald Reagan was playing a dangerous game, flying bombers right up to Soviet airspace, then turning back at the last minute. The Soviets actually shot down a South Korean passenger jet that accidentally crossed over, killing all on board, including many Americans and a U.S. congressman. Both sides were on edge, constantly monitoring their early-warning systems for that first shot, the first of many missiles, knowing that they only had a few minutes to retaliate with a massive strike of their own, which would surely kill hundreds of millions of people on both sides, injure and maim many more, and plunge the world into a nuclear winter for decades, if not centuries.
I, on the other hand, had just started grade 10 and was unaware of such machinations. I was more concerned with getting good grades, keeping my head down, and not getting beat up before, between, or after classes. The threat of nuclear annihilation was always there and I was scared of it — we all were — it just wasn’t the fear that demanded the most of my attention at the time.
Mr. Petrov was the duty officer at the Oko nuclear early-warning system’s command centre on September 26, 1983 when it suddenly showed five missiles launched from the U.S. Protocol dictated that he should notify his commanders, who would most likely follow their orders and launch a massive retaliatory strike. However, Petrov kept his cool and, after a few tense minutes, decided against contacting them. He knew the launch detection system was new and he didn’t trust it, he reasoned that five was an oddly small number of missiles to start an attack with, and I like to think he was also a decent human being who didn’t want to overreact and snuff out a good chunk of life on Earth. Obviously, he was right on all counts. The system had, in fact, malfunctioned.
On-screen, fireworks and fly-bys celebrated the defeat of the Empire and the destruction of the second Death Star. Mr. Petrov was at first praised by his superiors, but then quietly demoted, receiving no reward nor recognition for his actions — or inactions — for over twenty years. I went to school the next day, successfully evading detection of a different sort.
The threat of nuclear weapons is still with us, but it just doesn’t feel as scary as it did in the ’80s. It’s not that they’re any less deadly — quite the opposite — but there are so many other threats, newer threats, over which to spread our fears, it’s kind of taken a backseat. And, personally, I’m no longer afraid of dying in a flash of light anymore. I’m more afraid that something bad could happen to my kids. Car accidents, random stabbings, childhood leukemia — this is what keeps me awake at night now.
My kids are at the age when they’re afraid of monsters. As they get older, their fears will progress and mature, as mine did, and we’ll face them together. Perhaps they’ll be afraid of nuclear annihilation, perhaps it’ll remain a vague, omnipresent threat, too immense to grasp fully or even contemplate.
But I’ll tell them about Stanislav Petrov and how he saved the world by doing nothing, because it’s soothing to feel there are good men and women out there, looking out for us and making the hard decisions. And I’ll tell them that I did nothing too, so maybe I also saved the world, who’s to say? And they can be heroes and do nothing as well, and that’ll keep them safe and Daddy won’t have to be quite so afraid all the time.
So… who’s up for a movie?
Lesson #53 —
He Who Dares, Wins
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