BTW notice how the governments and media of both the US and Russia have been deliberately dropping comments to bring back cold war paranoia for a while now. How do they profit from doing so? I remember the cold war, and that it did a great job at encouraging pessimism and apathy. Why bother being progressive if all you have to look forward to is annihilation? Of course, sensible people may realize that just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t really out to get you.
On an individual level, it is the same sword of Damocles we always have with not knowing how long we’ll live, whether there is a nuclear war or not, but prefer to not be reminded of. How do you embrace it without it caving in to despair? What I do is just ask myself: If I died the next year/week/hour - did I live as well and fully as I could? And if not, how do I? That gives me something to work towards, whether I die of a heart attack next month, a car crash next year, or a nuclear blast later on, but for the trajectory of my life and death my preparation is the same.
It reminds me of a story I heard years ago of a captured samurai who was being kept in a fort awaiting his execution at the hands of an enemy. A guard who decided to cut the condemned a break offered to share some of his figs with him while he waited, but the prisoner flatly declined, explaining that having snacks would be bad for his health. IMO that’s how you do it, not letting the threat of impending doom define you, setting a good example by still living as well as you can instead of capitulating to “fuck it, life is cheap.”
