Dr. Strangelove

The argument behind Dr. Strangelove is either lose the weapons or lose civilization…

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Dr. Strangelove is a satire about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button. Most Americans believe (or at least hope) that it would take much more than a single button pressed to set off world destruction, but Dr. Strangelove argues otherwise.

Why, then, was this movie so disturbing to me? I believe that it’s because it was impossible for me to watch the political satire without thinking about the world events at present that the film seems to have foreshadowed. In the film we are shown how one man, a general, is in a position of extreme power (I immediately thought of the power wielded by the President of the United States) and manages to set into motion the world’s demise.

This general has his finger on a button—the button— that launches a domino effect of evil actions. He understands that the government like any business was not built without error. He finds loopholes in the very government used to protect society and uses these loopholes to fuel his own agenda (under the guise of doing what is best for his people).

Some people argue that this is exactly what has happened in the United States in regard to President Bush and the war we are fighting over weapons of mass destruction. President Bush is a man of great power, a man who knows all too well the ends and outs of the government and is believed to by some (not necessarily myself) to have used his position of power and his knowledge of political America to press a button that will indubitably destroy America.