Press Here To End The World

Remember the Land of Confusion video? At the very end (~5:13), the Regan puppet inadvertently presses the “Nuke” button instead of the “Nurse” button (understandable mistake). It’s ridiculous because, of course, there wouldn’t actually have been a single button anyone could press that would launch nuclear missiles. Right? Actually, turns out, there was. Only it was in the Soviet Union.

I was perusing Ask MeFi the other day and came across a pretty interesting question: “Please help me out with my doomsday anxiety“. The OP was feeling some very real anxieties due to the seemingly endless reams of bad news lately. What he/she wanted was some genuine counter-arguments to add some levity and maybe even a bit of optimism to his/her outlook.

The very first response was:

Put it in perspective. 50 years ago–hell, 20 years ago–the entire world was one push of a button away from instant nuclear annihilation. Many people were convinced they would not live to middle age. Read about Col. Stanislav Petrov–a man who literally saved the world in a split-second decision.

The story that poster linked to, “Russian Colonel Who Averted Nuclear War Receives World Citizen Award”, is pretty amazing. And I had never heard of it.

He was the duty officer at Russia’s main nuclear command center in September 1983 when the system indicated a nuclear missile attack was launched by the U.S. on Russia.
…
Petrov was highly aware that Cold War tensions were acute, as USSR fighters had shot down a Korean airliner on Sept. 1. But he was completely shocked when the warning siren began to wail and two lights on his desk console began flashing MISSILE ATTACK and START. “Start” was the instruction to launch, irreversibly, all 5,000 or so Soviet missiles and obliterate America.

That’s right. Just hit “Start”, as in “Start Over”. Obviously Colonel Petrov resisted his trigger finger, and that single inaction probably prevented a Madmaxian world filled with razor-sharp boomerangs and shoulder pads.

I would have been 6.5 years old. It would have been around three on a Sunday afternoon. I wonder what I was doing right at that moment?