Olfactory Deterrence

A military aide carries the “nuclear football” aboard the Marine One helicopter in which President Trump was waiting to depart the South Lawn of the White House on Feb. 3. (Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency). via Washington Post.

August 6, 1945 – President Harry S. Truman, announcing the bombing of Hiroshima:

“If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” (video)

[Trump was less than a year old.]

August 8, 2017 – President Donald Trump:

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen... he has been very threatening beyond a normal state[ment]. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.” (video)

Issuing a threat of nuclear war is not something to cheer about (“We're number one! We're number one!”). Jesus does not condone such an action, despite what pastor Robert Jeffress says.

“The mixture of foreign policy, golf and veiled threats about nuclear war is unprecedented and jarring,” said BBC reporter Tara McKelvey.

I would like to think that most Americans are horrified by the prospect of nuclear war. But many are pleased with the blunt, bracing talk and feel “protected by the vastness of America” — “It doesn’t concern me,” said [a guy] at the Morgan County Fair in Brush, Colo. “We live in the safest part of the whole country.”

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!! I shout to myself.¹ The people interviewed for that article were between the ages of 45 and 76 (mean = 64.5 yrs), so they were all alive during the Cold War and probably watched The Day After on TV (now on YouTube). Mushroom clouds, incineration, radiation sickness, utter devastation. In Kansas. The apocalyptic wasteland of suffering encouraged by a younger generation of trolls immune to actual footage of melting bodies and acute radiation syndrome.


Olfactory VR

The callous Gamergate set requires a more visceral and disgusting approach to the gravity of the Trump-Kim Jong-un escalation. My near-future sci-fi solution to nuclear trolling would involve delivering odorants that carry the stench of death (e.g., cadaverine, putrescine) each and every time these jokers spread anxiety and discord. This would require immersive virtual reality (or some preposterous way to deliver odorants via smart phone) and real-time monitoring of social media streams for key phrases. Exposure to the nauseating, inescapable smell of rotting flesh might be punishing enough to initiate a change in behavior...

...but this could ultimately backfire in the event of an actual Zombie Apocalypse, because they would be protected from the marauding undead hoards. And that's not what we want.






For a very different view on ironic amusement, see this essay:

Today, the younger generations that will determine our future did not experience terrifying emotions as part of their nuclear education. For them, the gigantic mutant ants and degenerate war survivors that stalk the memories of their grandparents are obvious myths, evoking only the kind of ironic amusement that young people find in video games, TV shows and superhero movies. These post-Cold War generations should therefore be more ready than their elders to face nuclear missiles dispassionately, not as supernatural prodigies but as plain machinery.

Footnote

¹ But wait. Don't Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals? (“Say Scientists” — so it must be true). Or not. There were a lot of problems with that study, see Conservatives Are Neurotic and Liberals Are Antisocial.