Atomic Mythologies

[Bill Nolan]

"Dennis P. Tyler" <dptyler at hamlet.uncg.edu> writes about a piece in 
_Preparation X_ that he found intriguing because it "suggested a reason 
this particular tragic event 
is so memorable is the amount of power that one person, specifically, 
Thomas Ferebee, the bombadier, had."

Intriguing and thoughtful, perhaps, but wrong. Ferebee was just the 
ultimate actor. He had no real power; had he refused to drop the bomb, he 
would probably have been shot for insubordination (either on the spot or 
later) and someone else would've "pushed the button or pulled the lever or 
whatever it took" to do the job.

There was, of course, a lot of drama inherent in that moment: when Ferebee 
followed his orders, he realized the goal of all the human activity -- all 
the research, thinking, planning, building, testing, flying -- that created 
that bomb and took it to that place in the skies above Hiroshima. Ferebee's 
was the last human action. From there on out (or down), human agency 
contributed nothing: gravity and wind determined where the bomb would land, 
and the forces of physics determined whether the detonator would function 
or fail and whether the atomic fuel would go critical.

Were the 28-year-old author of this piece a Pynchon fan, he'd probably have 
a much better understanding of how systems, working their ways through 
individuals, sometimes make individuals seem more powerful than they really 
are.

--Bill

___________________________________________________________________________
Bill Nolan, Writer/Editor/Wiseguy            http://www.halcyon.com/bnolan/
Amid slender firs in the green and gray Northwest        bnolan at halcyon.com