He declared that nuclear defence technologies had grown to such enormous proportions that it would now be possible to obliterate humankind if multilateral nuclear warfare was ever undertaken.
In 1960, Herman Khan of the Rand Corporation arrived upon the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction ( MAD) as a reason to inhibit further weapon development. These were tested in seemingly endless competitive escalation by the first five nuclear states, Russia, France, the USA, China and the UK.
It evolved during the cold war, as our international arsenal transitioned from atomic bombs to larger and more devastating thermonuclear weapons. The immediate consequences of the bombings were dramatic and survivors of this attack are still physically, culturally and psychologically affected by their experiences to this day. We had a taboo surrounding deploying nuclear weapons – out of respect for the devastation they can wreak – but it seems more and more fragile.įat Man and Little Boy exploded in the skies over Nagasaki and Hiroshima 72 years ago. Traditionally, those who engage in taboo activities, such as incest, are stigmatised and ostracised by their society, as their breach or defiance of taboo could have significant and unacceptable repercussions. Taboos prohibit behaviours that are not appropriate within and beyond the moral or ethical framework of an individual community – scenarios that are so dangerous or perverse that they are almost unspeakable. Taboos offer a way for us to create overarching rules of societal acceptability that transcend our social and cultural norms. However, we are now in a position where that taboo is being flagrantly disregarded by the leaders of the most powerful nation in the world, and a totalitarian dictatorship. Until recently, a significant taboo has existed around the use of nuclear weapons in war.
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