Cuicui wrote:sen-no-sen wrote:Little ethological question: why want to have nuclear warheads?
Another question: At what period in history its arsenals were developed, and in what economic context?
Nuclear warheads are proof that the military are always late for a war.
It's not quite where I was coming from ...
For a nation, possessing nuclear weapons is proof of "technological maturity" (I did mention technological!), Inscribed in an expansionist logic (in the broad sense, this can be cultural for example)
It is a powerful means to show the rest of the world its strength.
From the point of view of ethology, we remain in the field of
domination ritual: assured dominance over other groups, and
territory ritual: ensure the sustainability of its territory, whether geographic or cultural.
From this point of view there, no significant evolution between Homo sapiens and a Chimpanzee, the man, an evolved animal?
Historically France entered the "club" following a Gaullist will, which aimed to make our nation, a strong country, which would not be in the pay of the USA, the United Kingdom or the USSR ... The idea is therefore to avoid the
submission ritual.
Quite naturally, the "Bomb" also makes it possible to influence global geopolitical decisions, thus, all members of the UN Security Council have atomic weapons ...
With regard to the economic context, it appears that the atomic weapon has always been developed in a period of economic growth *. (Regarding the nuclear powers worthy of the name)
Moreover, France launched its nuclear program in the midst of the "glorious thirties".
From the point of view of ethology, it therefore appears that nuclear power, under the guise of technological progress, responds to the animal instinct.
The pursuit of growth, if it was aimed at securing dominance (through material possession), has ended up becoming an alienation which has as its final goal only its limitless "self-fulfillment".
The great danger now lies in the intermingling of his two ideas: to want to ensure its constant increase, our insatiable, and the physical limits of the world being soon reached, risks of pushing us towards a use of the means of destruction to continue to ensure the sustainability of this search for growth.
* The case of North Korea needs to be qualified, due to a very specific historical context.
"Engineering is sometimes about knowing when to stop" Charles De Gaulle.