The genocidal mentality
Nuclear numbing, a term used by the authors, is defined as psychological conditioning that leads us to consider the possibility of nuclear war as something natural and may make it easier for the nuclear threshold to be crossed. Professionals in the nuclear weapons industry from physicists to strategists are alleged to have undergone such conditioning. Much of this book is devoted to psychological factors that allegedly motivate the so-called nuclear professional. A passion for problem solving, and the technological imperative of what can be made must be made are cited. However, politics are probably the most important motivating factor. The race to beat the Germans to the atomic bomb and the fear that Russia would develop the hydrogen bomb were determining factors in the development of these weapons. Avoiding nuclear war is a political problem and cannot be solved by psychological analysis.
- OSTI ID:
- 5861373
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: From review by Hans A. Bethe, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1990)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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