…in outer space. Glenn Reynolds and Kenneth Anderson on bombing the moon.
One thought on “Law And War”
Hell, to have ever described it as, or likening it to ‘bombing’ the Moon was a mistake.
There are far too many people who are both excessively literal-minded, and primed to see a secret military plot in almost any space activity.
(Witness Cassini. Those who didn’t fear a catastrophic accident would render all Florida uninhabitable, believed it was a secret plan to get more nuclear power into space [as if there were something inherently wrong with that] for military purposes [as if there weren’t plenty of military assets in space already…they just aren’t *weapons* in and of themselves]. And, of course, those who bought into *both* fantasies…)
It’s a shame that one has to be so careful about speaking in what should be an obviously figurative manner, but that’s what ignorance, coupled with Internet-speed of (mis)information gets you. What Churchill said about a lie getting halfway around the world before the truth has got its trousers on, is exponentially more meaningful today.
Hell, to have ever described it as, or likening it to ‘bombing’ the Moon was a mistake.
There are far too many people who are both excessively literal-minded, and primed to see a secret military plot in almost any space activity.
(Witness Cassini. Those who didn’t fear a catastrophic accident would render all Florida uninhabitable, believed it was a secret plan to get more nuclear power into space [as if there were something inherently wrong with that] for military purposes [as if there weren’t plenty of military assets in space already…they just aren’t *weapons* in and of themselves]. And, of course, those who bought into *both* fantasies…)
It’s a shame that one has to be so careful about speaking in what should be an obviously figurative manner, but that’s what ignorance, coupled with Internet-speed of (mis)information gets you. What Churchill said about a lie getting halfway around the world before the truth has got its trousers on, is exponentially more meaningful today.