Mary Clouter, one of my students in my online social psychology class at Granite State College found an old post of mine from a list serve for psychology professors. (Mary also has a blog site of her own for Granite State College!) My students continue to amaze me with their intellectual curiosity, and their thoughtful posts. This week, we're discussing aggression, and Mary found the following, which had been in an earlier edition of the textbook (by Dave Myers) that we use in our social psychology class:
Preventing Nuclear War
International Law professor Roger Fisher proposed a way to personalize the victims of war:
It so happens that a young man, usually a navy officer, accompanies the President wherever he goes. This young man has a black attaché case which contains the codes that are needed to fire nuclear weapons.
I can see the President at a staff meeting considering nuclear war as an abstract question. He might conclude, "On SIOP Plan One, the decision is affirmative. Communicate the Alpha line XYZ." Such jargon keeps what is involved at a distance.
My suggestion then, is quite simple. Put that needed code number in a little capsule and implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer. The volunteer will carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife as he accompanies the President. If ever the President wants to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he can do so is by first, with his own hands, killing one human being.
"George," the President would say, "I¹m sorry, but tens of millions must die." The President then would have to look at someone and realize what death is - what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet: it¹s reality brought home.
When I suggested this to friends in the Pentagon, they said, "My God, that's terrible. Having to kill someone would distort the President's judgment. He might never push the button."
Adapted from "Preventing Nuclear War" by Roger Fisher, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March, 1981, pp. 11-17.
Preventing Nuclear War
International Law professor Roger Fisher proposed a way to personalize the victims of war:
It so happens that a young man, usually a navy officer, accompanies the President wherever he goes. This young man has a black attaché case which contains the codes that are needed to fire nuclear weapons.
I can see the President at a staff meeting considering nuclear war as an abstract question. He might conclude, "On SIOP Plan One, the decision is affirmative. Communicate the Alpha line XYZ." Such jargon keeps what is involved at a distance.
My suggestion then, is quite simple. Put that needed code number in a little capsule and implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer. The volunteer will carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife as he accompanies the President. If ever the President wants to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he can do so is by first, with his own hands, killing one human being.
"George," the President would say, "I¹m sorry, but tens of millions must die." The President then would have to look at someone and realize what death is - what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet: it¹s reality brought home.
When I suggested this to friends in the Pentagon, they said, "My God, that's terrible. Having to kill someone would distort the President's judgment. He might never push the button."
Adapted from "Preventing Nuclear War" by Roger Fisher, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March, 1981, pp. 11-17.
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