DropTheBomb

Here in the west we fiercely defend our perceived right to run around being delusional monkeys, bumping into one another and treading on each other’s toes, competing for the same dwindling supply of imagined treasures and pleasures.  

I’ll tell you eventually the entwined stories of two musicians I jammed with, both of whom have military-related background, so as to understand the deeper story they are both components of despite their never having met. It explains very much about the Western approach to domestic defences. 

Meanwhile an exploration and understanding of chaotic behaviour as an approach to warfare. It thwarts any ability to pre-empt attacks. Fighting an enemy whose strategy is random causes confusion. 

Does the random combatant have a pattern at all? 

Certainly they have a desired outcome even where there are multiple potential approaches to the outcome. This can be controlled for instance if there is only one vantage or target it is necessary the enemy will gravitate toward that vantage or target. We’re drifting into Dune territory here (Frank Herbert). 

Clarity of thought is applied by the minority who are functional sufficient to attain and sustain it. All grids are seen. All parameters known. All vantages and targets recognised. The swift path to ultimate success is obvious. Therefore pre-emptive. 

Okay time for that story. It deserves a title. 

The Penny Drops 

by snakeappletree 

c2020 Ordo Octopia

Part One: 4 Minute Warning

This is a true story. 

It happened in 2006. 

“I worked for the military. Highly stressful job. Eventually I had enough. I quit and joined the band. This is much more fun. For four years I was posted at the bunker at [classified]. My job was to guard the door. It mostly involved standing around doing nothing. I was provided a list of names and a gun. In event of a nuclear war I was to compare the ID (identification papers) of anyone who turned up trying to get into the bunker, with the list of names. If their name was not on the list I was to shoot them. One shot in the head, dead. My name was not on the list, I was not important enough. After the door sealed I would have a choice to shoot myself or to go out into the world to watch the bombs drop.” 

Part Two: Radar Device

This is also a true story. 

It also happened in 2006. 

“I made up with my dad. You know he always wanted me to work with him? We got hired by the MoD (ministry of defence) to do a contract and from that it’s all opened up for us. The contract was interesting. They asked us to have a look at a broken radar. We got there and the control box had rusted shut. We jacked it open to get to the circuit. The problem was easy to fix, it meant replacing a part but the broken part has not been manufactured since the late fifties. My dad had to reinvent it and build them a new one using modern components which means we own the patent on the device. Then the MoD told us they want us to update all the broken radar systems across the country, of this type of radar. None of them have worked since the 1960s. We’re entrenched in the damn system. Do you remember they taught us in school about the threat of nuclear war with Russia or China?” 

Aftermath: Sound Of One Hand Clapping

As I overlaid these two experiences I recognised it immediately. 

Despite the radars built as an early warning system in event of nuclear missiles flying through the skies toward Britain not having worked for half a century - during which time the television media reminded us on a regular schedule about tensions between our nation and the rest of the world - underground military bunkers for key personnel to survive months of nuclear wasteland until the radiation had subsided sufficiently to make it safe to emerge - bunkers guarded even today by armed soldiers with their list of names - that was never going to happen simply because the radars were offline even during the peak of the Cold War. 

It was a ruse maintained to create simultaneously both a false sense of security and the fear generated by comprehending such thing to be necessary, which it never was. 

A tactic of domestic control: live in fear but don’t worry, we are protecting you because we know what we are doing and by the way Your name is not on the list. 

Or, and I truly do not know if this is better or worse... the people controlling the bunkers and the people controlling the radars continuously for five decades or more had so entirely failed to communicate with each other, they had no idea the futility of posting armed guards at  private bunkers. 

Or... the bunkers despite probably being capable of sustaining life for several months underground, are not primarily used for that purpose. Yet they still require an armed guard with shoot-to-kill orders anyone not listed. 

More questions than answers. The only definite answer is the scale of a lie told to the public regarding the situation.