It can't get much closer; it's already at 11:58:20, the closest to midnight ever. Even in the '62 Cuban Missiles Crisis, it was only set at 11:53 and after the US and the USSR demonstrated in '53 that each had a thermonuclear ("Hydrogen") bomb it was set only at 11:58. Subsequent treaties allowed it to be set back; those treaties have all been allowed to lapse.
Today, Narendra Modi proudly announced that India has developed and tested a MIRV-version of their Agni V ICBM. How glibly we toss about acronyms like MIRV and ICBM; will these be the labels on mankind's self-auto-da-fey?
When a fascist, nationalist already hostile to a nuclear-armed Chinese hegemon and to a nuclear-armed, militant neighbor has obtained a thermonuclear-tipped intercontinental missile, should not the world shudder? Are Hindu Nationalists any more rational than fearful Muslim Pakistanis or blustering Russians or gun-toting Christian Nationalists or vengeful Jewish Israelis or hate-driven Palestinians or self-doubting Chinese autocrats? Who's next? North Korea maybe already there? Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea, Japan?
If it was I, I'd set the clock at 11:59:30. Last night, we awarded Oscars for the sobering movie Oppenheimer, about how we got ourselves into all this. Day before yesterday, we sprang forward into Daylight Saving Time. Now we appear to be falling forward, a face-plant into a perpetual nighttime abyss, proudly clutching our nuclear toys.
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