Just a side note here about some of the things that we are seeing on screen: it's not a feature of communism or capitalism, but a feature of organizations.
Because of the complexity of decision making, we delegate power to key decision makers. Key decision makers can then use that power to benefit themselves and the organization itself, instead of the mission of the organization. People are then too apathetic, uniformed or powerless to do anything about it.
We can see this again and again in the US:
School and college administrators are paid more and more while teachers and professors are squeezed. We give out ambassadorships to donors and politically aligned people with 0 foreign policy experience. If you want more dramatic examples:
-Hugh Thompson Jr was a legit hero who stopped the My Lai massacre. He was ostracized and condemned for making the military look bad despite the fact that what he did was much more in line with the values that the military claimed to defend. Those who helped cover up and hide the massacre were rewarded.
- Michael Brown was in charge of FEMA during Katrina despite the fact that most of his experience had been as a disgraced commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association.
- The 2008 financial crisis is a perfect example of the people who screwed up being in charge of cleaning up their screw ups, with the results that instead of jail sentences and help for home owners, we had bail outs and support for those who screwed up even when they defrauded home owners.
As a college professor, I see this again and again in academia. The administrators that get the big paychecks and the big rewards are not those who quietly and efficiently improve the education of the students and the work conditions of the professors. The ones who get the big paychecks are the ones who build the big buildings, mollify the big donors and hide the big scandals.
I have to agree that my mind was blown on the "trust, but verify" quote.
I was surprised to hear the guys say that. I remember distinctly that Reagan always called it "an old Russian proverb." He used it so much that, at one meeting, Gorbachev laughed and said something like "you always say that." Maybe we attribute it to him b/c he used it so much.
Just an interesting thought about government: They always work perfectly in nature.
Communism? Ants and Bees have that stuff down. They may have a 'queen,' but that is just the best equipped insect for the job of producing more ants and the rest of the colony support her in that for the common goals of the collective hive. They act almost as a single organism.
Socialism? Wolf Packs. They all contribute what they have and take what they need. There are wolves who survive broken backs because the packs bring them food and protect them while they heal. Then they get up and hunt again. Wolves are super-parents, and will treat every cub as if it was their own, this is only an advantage because their own children will get that same treatment. There are reports that Orca whales behave similarly.
Capitalism? I'm going to say most other predators, and use lions as an example. They maximize their offspring, don't really look after each other (maybe a little, but not like wolves or Orcas do). They are ruthless when it serves them, to the point of killing the offspring of rivals.
This show reminds me a bit of Manhattan, which aired two seasons on WGN a few years back. It was more fictionalized (and dramatized) than Chernobyl, but it dealt with the actual science behind the technology with the same attention to detail that we see here. I also recommend Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail (2015), which is available through PBS, and Pandora's Promise (2013) which is available on YouTube.
I've taught sections about nuclear power (and radioactive decay) in my geology classes, but these shows have led me to do additional research into a pretty fascinating topic...
Show is just great. The filming is outstanding, the pacing, the feel. Beautiful I love what it says about politics and the non-black and white nature of it. You can really see brainwashing on both sides of the isle. Folks who think "this could never happen in a free capitalist society" are just mind blowing to me.
I grew more and more angry at both the wife and the doctor in those scenes where the unsupervised pregnant wife is continuously touching her radioactive husband and sitting within breathing distance of him the rest of the time.
I hate when shows have characters with lots of information not properly relaying said information to other characters so that they will be more likely to do something ridiculously stupid.
Instead of just saying "dont touch him" or "he's a danger to you," why would you not take an extra 30 seconds to educate her by telling her that if she touches him or stays close to him for s prolonged period of time, there is a good chance that she will get sick and perhaps die, and if she does happen to be pregnant that her baby would be likely to have deformities.
It's obvious that the doctor had that information in her head.
It a situation like that, doctors literally don't have a spare 30 seconds to spare, especially not to educate the ignorant. The doctor told her to stay away from him and not to touch him. It's all on the wife, but I would have probably done the same if I was in that situation.
Comments
Souunds like a remix to the 12 days of Christmas
They always work perfectly in nature.
Communism? Ants and Bees have that stuff down. They may have a 'queen,' but that is just the best equipped insect for the job of producing more ants and the rest of the colony support her in that for the common goals of the collective hive. They act almost as a single organism.
Socialism? Wolf Packs. They all contribute what they have and take what they need. There are wolves who survive broken backs because the packs bring them food and protect them while they heal. Then they get up and hunt again. Wolves are super-parents, and will treat every cub as if it was their own, this is only an advantage because their own children will get that same treatment. There are reports that Orca whales behave similarly.
Capitalism? I'm going to say most other predators, and use lions as an example. They maximize their offspring, don't really look after each other (maybe a little, but not like wolves or Orcas do). They are ruthless when it serves them, to the point of killing the offspring of rivals.
I've taught sections about nuclear power (and radioactive decay) in my geology classes, but these shows have led me to do additional research into a pretty fascinating topic...
I love what it says about politics and the non-black and white nature of it.
You can really see brainwashing on both sides of the isle.
Folks who think "this could never happen in a free capitalist society" are just mind blowing to me.
There's grey to everything