things I don't miss

[anotheranon]

Despite my busy-ness, I have been keeping up with the news in a limited way. What with Libya, Japan, Bahrain and elsewhere it's all a bit much too much to take in effectively.

I've had to back off following all of the news about the Japanese nuclear reactor. Fortunately or no, that hit the news not long after I watched The Battle of Chernobyl, which while an excellent documentary about the unsung heroes and heroics involved with the 1986 explosion cleanup, it's also high-octane nightmare fuel even if (like me) you didn't grow up under constant terror of nuclear holocaust*. No matter how complete and quick the cleanup of the Fukushima plant, it seems like a recurring theme with nuclear accidents is that the damage goes on and on, even when it disappears from the news cycle - the environment is essentially poisoned for centuries and those who don't die outright from exposure are burdened with ill health for the rest of their lives.

As such, I just can't watch that coverage anymore. Unlike the rebellions in the Middle East, it just reads as so hopeless to me.

*Tangentially, it's not that I didn't grow up on this planet in the 20th century, but I gather that I'm unusual in that I didn't have nuclear fear drilled into me by parents, teachers, etc. It's not that the adults around me weren't cognizant of the news, it just wasn't mentioned. I don't even remember doing "duck and cover" drills at school.

I was 13 when Chernobyl hit the news, and while everyone understood it was a terrible tragedy, there was no handwringing about it happening HERE, ANY MINUTE NOW.

Is it just me, or did I get off really lucky in not being pre-emptively traumatized by the Cold War? Or were my parents/teachers really shamelessly naive?

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Never really got the nuclear thing during childhood/teenhood up here, but it was fairly commonplace "could happen" knowledge that if the U.S. and Soviet Union ever started shooting at each other, most missiles would be fired over the North Pole and, with the less-than-stellar state of missile technology at the time, up to half of them would likely hit somewhere in Canada rather than their targets. We all very aware of the existence of the DEW Line stations.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't even know about the DEW lines :/ Either I really was sheltered or the people I'm talking to had irrationally fearful people in their lives.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Well, we've got an age and era difference thing between us, remember (I was 25 when Chernobyl happened), so we were exposed to different events/focuses/situations. At the time the DEW Line probably had a far greater significance to Canadians than Americans because we were living on the potential battleground/no man's land, with greater odds of non-survival if the Cold War turned hot.

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

I came from the "nobody wants to bomb San Francisco, as we're too hard to hit -- they'll target Los Angeles first" school of thought.

I think the fear of the cold war was reasonably offset by the fear of The Big One -- earthquakes, which could and would definitely happen all the time, as opposed to worrying about a nuclear war which was very indefinite. It sorta changes your perspective when the news on TV is talking about some mythical possible bombing while your house is shaking with a very real 6.2 earthquake. :p