Anyone remember “No First Use”?

Or Mutually Assured Destruction?

Those were the two tenets of nuclear weapons negotiations.

The premise was as simple as it was relentlessly grim; any use of nuclear weapons would almost certainly bring about a conflagration that would bring to ruin any who be a party to it – and many who would, if they could, avoid any participation at all.

It was the ultimate fool’s game.

The real question would only be who is fully destroyed first.

Once begun, this is the game that never ends, and has no “winners”.

And no innocent – or safe – bystanders.

The anxiety – even fear – of nuclear weapons has, in the past generation or more, become embedded in our collective understanding and destiny. Near total annihilation has become just another shadow across our landscape – our shared humanity – our flickering mortality.

Every other potential catastrophe is dwarfed by total nuclear devastation. But it, like almost every human made disaster is beyond our hands – beyond the reach of our voices – and is in the hands of those who, like fools of every era, imagine themselves immune from consequences – especially those that can be hidden behind patriotic jargon and claims of conquest.

Death and smoldering rubble have no interest in paltry human claims of empire.

Any fool, history has shown, can bring down a city, a nation, a civilization.

It takes many hands to build, to lift up, and only a few, maybe even just one, to hit that glistening button that promises victory and glory brighter than the glowing sun.

So who would want a weapon of such scale that one dares not use?

The dark promise of mutually assured destruction hangs like a fierce and barren fog that seeps into every bone, every word, every breath.

“There is no escape” they said a lifetime ago. And there still isn’t.

But we live and find our place – and reach for our destinies – as is if that grim menace wasn’t waiting for us around the next corner. The next season. The next sputtering conflict anywhere in the distant world.

Maybe we just took annihilation as just another piece of furniture in the setting that is something like home.

Individual death is one thing – and paralyzing enough, but wholesale, indiscriminate death of every living thing is too much for our minds to take in – so we don’t. We can’t.

Death literally takes our breath away.

But life, life itself is the ultimate gift that we, in our ignorance and sublime glory, take for granted and assume that it is, and will be. Forever.

But life, in a nuclear era or after – or even before – is a flickering miracle that no one can hold or define or even name.

Death is always in the background, and acts as the pervading contrast to the vaporous, shimmering, irreplaceable fragile immensity of existence.

We humans spent our fortunes figuring out how to murder ourselves.

But stepping into life and forever reaching for the unmeasurable, impossible and ever more unlikely moment is the catalyst – the active ingredient in what must be the eternal spark – the spark that give hope, not fear, life, not death and light instead of a final darkness.

Humanity has already changed the pulse and texture of the physical world. From excess heat to nano-plastics, the earth is a very different entity than it has been for all those millennia until the present age.

But if humanity ever presents its ultimate ”gift” – the ”gift” of un-creation all that will be left will be fungi and a species or two of roaches.

It is possible, but highly unlikely, that a a few isolated corners of humanity might survive, but no cohesive culture will be left.

This will be, if we let it, humanity’s lasting legacy – its inverted promise of creation.

We have had the equivalent of nuclear winters before; volcanic eruptions that spewed their toxic clouds around the earth.

A radioactive cloud, will, of course, be far worse, with residue active for years if not decades. Or longer.

The sane and decent among us must stand up against such an eventuality. We must, in a direct and practical way, insist on the right of all of us, of all living thigs, to live a full life beyond the fierce and unforgiving shadow of our own demise.

We have among us, in the 21^st century, a unique breed of humanity; a subspecies obsessed with vanity and revenge. They would be wise to remember that defining proverb of vengeance; he who seeks revenge must dig his own grave first.

These fools and knaves would eagerly dig graves for us all in their brittle and relentless quest for revenge.

Among all the hazards and challenges of life, these revenge seekers are the gravest threat of all. They would gladly sacrifice us all on the altar of their own petty grievances.

They should be kept away from any offices or corridors of power – and in a setting where they can quarrel and contend among themselves.

If we allow them to take us down with them, we too are fools of the highest order.

They love death and destruction. They tell us constantly what they intend – they aren’t even threats – they are ecstatic fantasies of eternal dominion over ashes and impotent rage.

They are eager to weave us into their apocalyptic nightmare scenarios. They see themselves as divine tools – of emissaries - of their empty kingdoms.

Their intention is, of course, not an entirely “empty” kingdom. Some have openly admitted that their ideal society would be a feudal system – with lords and vassals – only the very rich and the very poor.

In the economy of 2026, you can see this strategy at work. The USA – and most of the world, is, perhaps intentionally, bifurcated; split between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.

The economy at work is emphasizing, if no ratifying this split. In the developing economy (which could also be described as a collapsing economy) what was once the middle will continue to disintegrate; and more will find themselves, largely by momentum, pushed or pulled into ever greater wealth or poverty.

Those two categories will do well in the coming economy; the wealthy because they have the resources and assets, and the poor because they have always had to improvise. Scavenging and “making do” are essential acquired life skills and practices that will serve – and have served -them well.

We are learning in 2026, that mutually assured destruction is also an economic concept.

Iran has learned one important principle when it comes to war with the USA; the USA does not have much stomach for long, protracted wars. If it is a matter of waiting out the damage and surviving the next day, unless the USA – or Israel – uses a nuclear weapon “first”, Iran is likely to win, or at least stalemate any waitng game.

The next few months – or years – will see how much mutually assured destruction any of us can tolerate.