To me the speech is interesting because it reminds us how we did actually all live in fear that a nuclear war could happen. It seems remote now, but growing up it was ever present.
I think it's in Generation X that one character describes "waiting for the flash". The idea that the sudden destruction of everything was an ever present background thought. In the book Coupland defines the term "Mental Ground Zero" for where you imagined you'd be when it happened. For me it was always on a train traveling between two cities that no longer exist.
For those interested in UK government cold war planning I can strongly recommend Peter Hennessy's book "The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010":
One particularly chilling part describes how early UK estimates thought that it would only take a small number of H-bombs to destroy the UK as a functioning society, resulting in the following:
"Hennessy tells the story of a jokey 1961 encounter between Khrushchev and the British Ambassador, Frank Roberts. The Soviet leader asked how many H-bombs Roberts thought would be needed to wipe out the UK. ‘Six’, he replied. Khrushchev chided him for his pessimism. He said that ‘optimists’ estimated it would take nine — but reassured him with a twinkle that
the Soviet General Staff… had earmarked several scores of bombs for use against the UK so that the Soviet Union had a higher opinion of the UK’s resistance capacity than the UK itself."
I'm young enough to be on the tail end of it, but I remember seeing When The Wind Blows as a kid in the late 80s and being aware of what could happen. Curiously, the whole movie is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-IlkHo (it's animated)
For anyone with a morbid curiosity over nuclear war, THREADS is worth a watch too. I didn't learn about it until very recently but supposedly it was on prime time British TV in 1984 and scared the bejeezus out of everyone in its rendition of what might happen to the UK in the case of nuclear war. It's also on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg
I grew up in Leeds in the 70s and early 80s. Eight miles east of my home was the Vickers tank factory, the largest tank factory in Western Europe. Ten miles west was Leeds/Bradford Airport. Eight miles south was the M1/M62 junction, one of the two main north-south/east-west motorway intersections in the north/midlands, and a strategic choke-point on reinforcements arriving in Liverpool from the Atlantic and departing from Hull and Newcastle to European ports. I didn't expect to survive ...
(Then I went to university in London. Enough said.)
It's interesting how much of the art and music of the 1980s was influenced by this existential terror of sudden annihilation, and how little resonance songs like "The Final Countdown" (by Europe) or "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes" (Ultravox) and similar have for folks aged under 30.
I used to get sudden moments of fear that the 'flash' could happen at that particular moment when it struck. I can vividly remember these happening when I was a teenager.
Looking back it was a terrible thing to grow up with, a constant fear of immediate death without warning.
Somehow while the danger is still present the immediacy of the fear has waned as I have gotten older. Although now I worry about my children it's more of a vague worry about their future than a immediate pressing fear of a the 'flash'.
That "waiting for the flash" problem still exists, you know; the modern "flash" is the one that comes soon after the birth-moment of the world's first self-improving AI, unless that AI is "Friendly" to us humans. Could happen at any moment, if some dolt gets all the math right without also deducing the consequences.
And this is why we have a royal family. I actually felt quite stirred reading that speech. I can't imagine David Cameron or Ed Milliband managing that. I think Churchill was an outlier.
If you enjoy zombie science fiction, there is a scene in World War Z (the book, not the atrocious movie of the same name) which you would appreciate. Blink and you'll miss it, but the author distills some of the best parts of the British national character into two sentences which nearly made me (an American) weep for the beauty of it.
[Edit: Strong general recommendation for that book, by the way. If it were not in a low-status genre, parts of it would be taught in high schools.]
I think that the dependency of the English people on their Matriarch for comfort and compassion is a sign of ill-health, personally, as a society. I find it repugnant that in a time of dire circumstances, the dependency on cult figures is still a resolute component of the human social experience. Until we do away with such crutches, we'll always have the very threat of war upon us ..
Unfortunately, we're still quite capable of annihilating the world several times over with nuclear weapons. We just don't seem to be threatening to do so, these days, at least not so openly. The nuclear cartel, for lack of a better word, has shifted its focus towards maintaining exclusivity on the possession of these weapons, and will wage war to accomplish this.
To be a bit more on-topic, that this speech was even considered necessary gives me a bit of hope. We see it as a bit antiquated, fears of a time that is now largely behind us, when our rulers were willing to sacrifice most of us in their global power game.
There's an interview of Jeremy Paxman with Parkinson that touches on the responsibilities of a newly elected PM which include writing (in their own handwriting) orders for the commanders of the nuclear subs. These are to be read in the event that the country is destroyed and they are dead. Tony Blair was so overcome with the gravity of this, he took to his home for a while to mull over the implications.
[+] [-] jgrahamc|12 years ago|reply
I think it's in Generation X that one character describes "waiting for the flash". The idea that the sudden destruction of everything was an ever present background thought. In the book Coupland defines the term "Mental Ground Zero" for where you imagined you'd be when it happened. For me it was always on a train traveling between two cities that no longer exist.
[+] [-] arethuza|12 years ago|reply
e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Leg
For those interested in UK government cold war planning I can strongly recommend Peter Hennessy's book "The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Secret-State-Whitehall-Cold/dp/0...
One particularly chilling part describes how early UK estimates thought that it would only take a small number of H-bombs to destroy the UK as a functioning society, resulting in the following:
"Hennessy tells the story of a jokey 1961 encounter between Khrushchev and the British Ambassador, Frank Roberts. The Soviet leader asked how many H-bombs Roberts thought would be needed to wipe out the UK. ‘Six’, he replied. Khrushchev chided him for his pessimism. He said that ‘optimists’ estimated it would take nine — but reassured him with a twinkle that the Soviet General Staff… had earmarked several scores of bombs for use against the UK so that the Soviet Union had a higher opinion of the UK’s resistance capacity than the UK itself."
[+] [-] petercooper|12 years ago|reply
For anyone with a morbid curiosity over nuclear war, THREADS is worth a watch too. I didn't learn about it until very recently but supposedly it was on prime time British TV in 1984 and scared the bejeezus out of everyone in its rendition of what might happen to the UK in the case of nuclear war. It's also on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg
[+] [-] cstross|12 years ago|reply
(Then I went to university in London. Enough said.)
It's interesting how much of the art and music of the 1980s was influenced by this existential terror of sudden annihilation, and how little resonance songs like "The Final Countdown" (by Europe) or "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes" (Ultravox) and similar have for folks aged under 30.
[+] [-] IvyMike|12 years ago|reply
I tell people this, and the younger ones never believe me, but I genuinely believed that I would never live to be an adult.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_(film)
[+] [-] oracuk|12 years ago|reply
I used to get sudden moments of fear that the 'flash' could happen at that particular moment when it struck. I can vividly remember these happening when I was a teenager.
Looking back it was a terrible thing to grow up with, a constant fear of immediate death without warning.
Somehow while the danger is still present the immediacy of the fear has waned as I have gotten older. Although now I worry about my children it's more of a vague worry about their future than a immediate pressing fear of a the 'flash'.
[+] [-] derefr|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gadders|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patio11|12 years ago|reply
[Edit: Strong general recommendation for that book, by the way. If it were not in a low-status genre, parts of it would be taught in high schools.]
[+] [-] seclorum|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] air|12 years ago|reply
"The speech, devised by Whitehall officials at one of the most fraught Cold War periods..."
[+] [-] noarchy|12 years ago|reply
To be a bit more on-topic, that this speech was even considered necessary gives me a bit of hope. We see it as a bit antiquated, fears of a time that is now largely behind us, when our rulers were willing to sacrifice most of us in their global power game.
[+] [-] FeatureRush|12 years ago|reply
No, not really, see
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/how-i-learnt-to-s...
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html
[+] [-] sinkasapa|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arethuza|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eksith|12 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrJNa--Oq8 (5:25)
[+] [-] gnosis|12 years ago|reply
You can watch it for free on youtube.[3]
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads
[2] - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/
[3] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg