Dr. Strangelove

The movie, a Kubrick classic, is one of the "what if"'s that Kubrick likes to tease us with. Just like in Clockwork Orange and 2001 Space Odessey, Kubrick decides to tease us with what COULD have happened if some people had decided to take a "morally correct" course too far. I believe the biggest lesson that Kubrick is trying to give us is the fact that we should not let our "patriotism" overcome our humanity. That is to say: though to disobey the "orders" would mean that the country would not get "revenge", the pilots of that airplane should not have had the "guts" to pull the switch - dropping an atomic bomb on millions - because their humanity ticker should have gone off and said "wtf am i doing this for.. being a mass murderer".