Shared Experiences

Our world is a giant network. Everyone and everything is connected or associated with one another even if no one realizes it. What a complete stranger does across the globe can and often does have serious consequences for you. The imminent, constant, gnawing fear that nuclear annihilation was just moments away united almost everyone during the Cold War especially in the two superpowers. This shared experience not only bonded them together but it also kept each side from pushing the ‘red’ button. Each side was just as aware what would happened if push actually came to shove. Despite grandiose rhetoric from leaders and citizens on both sides everyone kept the nuclear option under control. That’s not to say the rhetoric had not effect on the situation. Reagan is a great example of this, only five years from the dissolution of the USSR he is making aggressive speeches and cranking up the United States military. This elicits a response from the Soviet military that leads to a mobilization and could have led to war. Reagan’s rhetoric and policies also created shared experiences. The USS Wisconsin was recommissioned 40 years after it had been built and a whole new generation of Americans served and slept on the same ship my Grandfather did. From World War Two to Korea to the First Gulf War the USS Wisconsin and the shared experience of the men who sailed her cruised around the world as America’s muscle.

1972 Picture of Earth from Apollo 17