Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom by Elaine Scarry (PDF)

Description

From one of our leading social thinkers, a compelling case for the elimination of nuclear weapons.During his impeachment proceedings, Richard Nixon boasted, “I can go into my office and pick up the telephone and in twenty-five minutes seventy million people will be dead.” Nixon was accurately describing not only his own power but also the power of every American president in the nuclear age.Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon each contemplated using nuclear weapons—Eisenhower twice, Kennedy three times, Johnson once, Nixon four times. Whether later presidents, from Ford to Obama, considered using them we will learn only once their national security papers are released.In this incisive, masterfully argued new book, award-winning social theorist Elaine Scarry demonstrates that the power of one leader to obliterate millions of people with a nuclear weapon—a possibility that remains very real even in the wake of the Cold War—deeply violates our constitutional rights, undermines the social contract, and is fundamentally at odds with the deliberative principles of democracy.According to the Constitution, the decision to go to war requires rigorous testing by both Congress and the citizenry; when a leader can single-handedly decide to deploy a nuclear weapon, we live in a state of “thermonuclear monarchy,” not democracy.The danger of nuclear weapons comes from potential accidents or acquisition by terrorists, hackers, or rogue countries. But the gravest danger comes from the mistaken idea that there exists some case compatible with legitimate governance. There can be no such case. Thermonuclear Monarchy shows the deformation of governance that occurs when a country gains nuclear weapons.In bold and lucid prose, Thermonuclear Monarchy identifies the tools that will enable us to eliminate nuclear weapons and bring the decision for war back into the hands of Congress and the people. Only by doing so can we secure the safety of home populations, foreign populations, and the earth itself.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐With clear and elegant writing, this book presents some astounding facts about American nuclear power and the lack of control over it by Congress, the 535-person minimum number of informed and conscientious citizens that our Constitution requires to soberly and thoroughly debate and decide the question of war. The book warns that nuclear weapons, developed to protect us during WWII, have since come to threaten the existence of all life on planet Earth, including ourselves. It alerts us to the fact that control over this terrible power has shifted unwittingly from our hard-won constitutional democracy to a “thermonuclear monarchy” of an imperial President; that the decision of a single person–the President of the United States, whose hand controls the levers of thermonuclear guillotines–nullifies the will of We the People to live in peace and let live in peace. It discusses the political philosophy of Hobbes and Locke, who inspired the founders of our nation and our Constitution, as they explained how”the social contract” arose to protect humanity from the chaos of general warfare and enable peace and safety. It urges us citizens to insist on this natural contract and to reclaim our Constitutional right to declare war (or not!) and to launch (or, much more likely, not to launch) nuclear weapons that could result in destruction of our own country as well as “enemy” countries.The intelligentsia have given high praise to this book–except for nuclear Establishment pundit Lawrence D. Freedman in “Foreign Affairs.” He writes that, “have underlined the absurdity of the nuclear condition…she offers only a feeble remedy.” Well, it may be true that We the [American] People have lost the vitality that revolted from traditional monarchy in 1775, or that we have forgotten the wisdom that fashioned the great, written “social contract” of 1787 that has served us long and well and has inspired other nations to similar achievements. But every tool, including the mind, is not only feeble but useless to the owner if he loses it, forgets it, or will not use it. Scarry calls us to reclaim our protective Constitution; but Noam Chomsky advises a further remedy: “Scarry’s remarkable contribution should inspire us to abolish this colossal folly[of the nuclear state].” Amen.David Swanson–himself the author of several 5-star books–wrote the extensive, first Amazon.com review of “Thermonuclear Democracy” but recommends it with only four stars. IMHO, the book deserves the whole enchilada (5 stars) for this extensive, vital, informative, persuasive and readable treatment of a troubling subject that we citizens have neglected for far too long.No book review can replace the detailed, intriguing discussion of this book. Better to begin reading it than to settle for reviews. If its 582 pages seem daunting for time-pressed readers, the author provides a gripping, 63-page overview or “short, clear book inside the long, complex one,” as well as 460 pages of detailed “arguments [which] cannot be made casually or in quick assertions.” (In this, Scarry exemplifies the ideal deliberation of Congress about the life-or-death question of taking the nation to war.) The overview, which I urge everyone to read first, consists of five short sections: “Introduction,” a “Prelude and Summary” for each of the book’s three major parts, and an 8-page “Conclusion.” These pages alone are worth the price of the book, in my opinion. It would be a public service to reprint them as a booklet for wide distribution–a good project for Physicians for Nuclear Responsibility. The bulk of this book will grip your attention as well. It will illuminate the genesis of our Constitution, will alarm you about the current, unconstitutional power of a U.S. President to begin a cataclysmic nuclear war and, hopefully, it will inspire you to activism against the danger of “Thermonuclear Monarchy” and threat of a nuclear winter or a nuclear Armageddon. Peace be with you.

⭐Professor Scarry is right on her insistence that the human race cannot continue indefinitely on the nuclear path that it has been on for the past 70 years, Consider the following ad from Boeing which appeared in 1956. “At any moment, day or night,SAC’s training operations can be changed into combat operations, unleashing mighty retaliatory nuclear strikes against the war making power of any aggressor, anywhere.” Notice that nuclear weapons in 1956 were to be delivered by bombers, which meant that people could talk, consider and review the decision to deliver the strike. The terror that we have today, and the requirement that the President, the “Monarch”, decide alone, without legislative debate was made necessary when the delivery system moved from the bomber to the missile. A chore which would have taken half a day, became an excursion of minutes. But also note that in 1956, America was safe and everyone else was vulnerable. Professor Scarry repeatedy cites President Nixon’s statement that he could go into his office, pick up the phone, and 70 million people would be dead in an afternoon. She thinks that is horrible. But she misses the larger horror for Americans. If the target is Russia or China, millions of American will be dead in the same afternoon. That was not the case in 1956. So the march into nuclear terror between 1956 has been more beneficial to Russia or China than to America. And soon North Korea may have the ability to kill millions of Americans. I believe that Prof. Scarry’s conclusion that the world must get rid of nuclear weapons misses this key point. Russia and China would not be able to hold off America’s conventional weapons systems without nuclear weapons. So there is no way Russia and China would give up their nuclear weapons. Nuclear terror advantages China and Russia much more than it advantages America. I believe rather than engage in wishful thinking about getting rid of nuclear weapons, the US, Russia and China should join forces to ensure that no more countries develop a true intercontinental nuclear weapons system I would like to try to develop a platform to discuss nuclear weapons daily with different experts. I think that the public would be interested, especially in view of Iran and North Korea. If anyone knows Professor Scarry please ask her if she would debate me on some Internet format on the issue. I assume that she would want to get paid. I could try to raise the money, maybe through venture capital or an Internet site. But a debate with her would be a great start.For a more complete review of the book, please visit my site on nuclear weapons, WARBYIQ.com. The site argues what appened to disadvantage America between 1956 and 2017 was predictable given IQ realities.r peppe

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