Whilst studying the Cold War, one issue continues to provoke a bewildered response inside me as my mind fails to grapple with the justifications for it.
The nuclear arms race. By 1961, the US and the Soviet Union had the combined ability to destroy the world three times over. You would have thought it would end there but no, greed and hunger for power, status and money ensured both governments continued to fund research after research merely so that they can boast and threaten the other with their nuclear arsenal. They were not content with having the capability to destroy the world, they wanted to obliterate it completely.
In their hunger for power, they failed their own people. Billions upon billions were spent on arms instead of much needed social reforms. I can’t find any real and valid explanation to this other than greed.
It’s completely bewildering. Hopefully, that is the worst we have seen of humankind. However, we are seeing the same thing today. The continued build up of weapons which are never used except when it is time for the annual military parade. We simply do not need them.
That is what I think.
Until Next Time,
A Worried Student
A WORRIED STUDENT 
Hey!
There is just one basic question ( which many people might have asked you before ) that I have to ask you:
How do you shuffle between blogging and studying….???
Because even I have to manage both the things together and at times it becomes clumsy…
Saksham
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Hmm interesting question which I haven’t actually been asked before on WordPress.
The practical answer would be, having a phone helps as it means you can note down ideas on the go or post at any time. Often I note ideas for posts or type them up whilst on the bus, train or walking somewhere.
I definitely would not be able to blog as often or browse other people’s posts at the same rate I do if I had to use a computer/laptop. (not only because at times my phone is faster!)
I’ve only been blogging for just over 2 months so I can’t really say if I cope with blogging and studying well yet as the work load has mostly been revision which whilst not easy, is not so intense. However, it does mean that at times blogging means I sacrifice watching a movie or two!
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Having a phone also creates a problem for me sometimes as I don’t concentrate on studies as much as on blogging.
Even I am only one month new to blogging and still it feels addicting. And I have sacrificed a lot of TV shows and movies in order to concentrate only on studies and sometimes on blogging and even rarer on reading ( since in India in class 10th and 12th we have so called Board Examinations which really matter to almost everyone here ( parents more specifically ) 😛 ). So that’s the thing… 😦
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I feel your pain!
WordPress definitely is addictive and I have to tell myself off at times. I guess creating a schedule may help.
I would say focus on studying right now and blog during your breaks. If you really love blogging, it will not feel like work to you.
Then when you are free from studies, you’ll be able to blog even more! 🙂
Haha well good luck to you my friend! 🙂 My exams are coming up on Monday…
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🙂 Thank you!
Best of luck to you too! 🙂
I guess I will take 2-3 weeks off before my exams. Thank for the advice! 🙂
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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I love this question. I often wonder if bloggers talk to “real people” or just key away. It’s become a “thing” in this country to go 24 hours without digital anything. Amazing things happen! It really can become an addiction, this digital thing!
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Definitely. Hey I wonder if all of the ‘powers that be* can switch off their nuclear arsenal for 24 hours. Now that would be something!
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Hmmm, back to the Cold War. Have you tried to think about it framed by contemporary thoughts? Or in modern terms? This is about 15 years after the end of World War 2, where the world was literally torn apart, and the so called Eastern Bloc was presided over by Josef Stalin (who I believe to be not very nice – have you read any on the starvation of the Ukraine and their wheat crops?) and after the dourness of the Great Depression and the harshness of WW II, much of Europe going through a rebuilding phase after the damage and carnage, everyone was fearful of the expansionist views of the other side (east/west, communism/capitalism). The only news feeds were really from official sources. (To put this in perspective, New Zealand gained television in 1960, for about 4 hours a day!). Fear is a very strong emotion. (Think McCarthyism)
In today’s world where information is freely available (although the source must be critically judged for veracity), it is harder to censor the news, and we are all so very much aware of what is going on. So it is hard to imagine what it was like back then.
Try to imagine when the whole world virtually stopped in wonderment of man landing on the moon. As an 8 year old, I marvelled at this – to think men had travelled in the cold vaccuum of space and back! Now we have the International Space Station, flights up and back.
And, news from just about any area can get out and be shared with the world. So we are not as frightened anymore, because we know a lot more.
One by one, we can change the world, and I applaud you for asking the questions, wondering, and wanting to change. :-). Keep challangeing. Keep thinking. Keep having opinions. 🙂
(And sorry this is so long!)
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Yup, the Cold War is quite an interesting topic.
It was a difficult time and full of controversies, advancements and political unrest. When people were manipulated by those in charge. When I learnt about McCarthyism, I realised such a man would not be able to have such an impact in today’s world because as you say, we know a lot more.
Thank you and I certainly shall 🙂
(No problem at all! Its lovely to discuss these issues with you. )
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🙂 Enjoyed this post, and very much goes hand in hand with the post of mine in which you just “liked” curious, how did you find me? haha Also, greed is a very big issue, it comes down to the greed of power, then this comes down to a misunderstanding of what a human is in the totality of creation. Misunderstandings, leading to pain and suffering. Something in which we can greatly overcome if we as humanity work together. Happy to meet other like-minded individuals.
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Thanks 😀 Through the WordPress reader under the tag Life I think 🙂
Certainly, greed is the cause of most problems and corruption in the individual as well as society at large. So am I! 🙂
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🙂 awesome, I love that my posts are showing up in peoples feeds 🙂 happy you resonated with it also. YAY haha indeed for we are a by product, and since the society is corrupt then the individual is also corrupt, but once one turns within and starts pulling away those layers, and getting back down to our innocence which we all have, we can heal the world. But one must be willing to forgive the world deeply.
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😀
Definitely, we can make a change but it requires effort
and self-less action.
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INDEED!!!! very much so!!! looking within, then moving forward into the world from the point of knowledge that we are all deeply connected and making our actions count in that sense.
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Spot on! 🙂
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“They were not content” – To me these words, of yours, are the answer to your opening question. No one that is content would strive to accomplish what these men did. Greed is not the acquiring of more after one is satiated but the inability to be satiated, or content.
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True, they were never happy with what they had as they always wanted a bigger and better weapon.
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Ahh. Not quite. See it was never about the bomb, the weapon. War is about consumerism, the buying and selling of goods. Contented people, people with nothing to fear, do not purchase. Fear sells be it bombs, insurance, steel, what-have-you.
Think or the lamb and lion. When both are contented, free from fear they will lie down side by side. Only when they are not contented will they strive for more.
Each in fear. The lamb from the lion’s appetite, the lion that his want will not be met if the lamb gets away. Man’s journey is toward contentment, on this path he must learn to overcome his fears. However people who are not content in themselves crave material goods as these ease their immediate wants and quiets their fears, for a while.
Since no war existed to keep the arms manufactures busy, we had the next best thing, a cold war. Nothing got killed but national finances. And the rich, well they needed more…..
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You’ve summaried it perfectly once again! 🙂
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I put a poem from one of my books that’s entitled “Cold War” on my recent Reading on YouTube. It about says it all. I have an entire section in all of my poetry collections writing about it from a veteran’s perspective.
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I shall certainly listen to them tomorrow! 🙂
Time for me to sleep, my cold war exam awaits tomorrow morning..
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