The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil

by Michael Malice

It brings to mind Leonard Cohen’s poem “All There is to Know About Adolph Eichmann.” After listing the Holocaust engineer’s eyes, weight and height as “normal,” Cohen asked, “What did you expect? Talons? Oversize incisors? Green saliva?”

At approximately 3 a.m. on the morning of October 12th—a few minutes after she finished editing her speech—Thatcher heard a loud thud followed by a different sound. She immediately knew it was a bomb, and only learned later that the second noise was that of a falling chimney making its way through several floors. Thatcher was safe in her hotel sitting room but had narrowly escaped serious harm. “The glass had come in,” she later recalled, “which would have been very nasty had one been in the bathroom at that time.” Five people were killed and a few dozen injured, some very seriously, but none of them were the main targets of the bombing. The following day the Irish Republican Army took credit in a ruthlessly coldblooded statement: “Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always.” The conference went on as planned.

Nine days later President Reagan took part in his second and final debate against the Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter’s Vice President Walter Mondale. The first debate had gone poorly for Reagan, who nevertheless maintained a massive lead in the polls due to a surging economy and his unflagging optimism. Yet Reagan’s age had been a factor in 1976 and 1980, and now his age seemed to have visibly affected his performance. The moderator addressed this issue head on, giving Reagan an opportunity to respond. He brought up the example of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, where Khrushchev had placed nuclear missiles pointed at the United States mere miles from Florida. Eventually President Kennedy got the Soviet Union to back down in exchange for quietly disarming America’s own nukes in Turkey. Yet for two weeks the world came closer to nuclear war than at any time previously. “You already are the oldest president in history and some of your staff say you were tired after your most recent encounter with Mr. Mondale,” said the moderator. “I recall yet that President Kennedy had to go for days on end with very little sleep during the Cuban missile crisis. Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?” “Not at all Mr. Trewhitt, and I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” Reagan replied. “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The actor delivered the line ...

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness–pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.

wow

Even before he assumed office as president, Reagan took part in a discussion about what would happen if the Soviet Union struck first. One participant in the meeting argued that, should missiles be fired, that the United States should just launch a response before we were hit. “That would be the wrong thing to do,” Reagan said. His advisers left the meeting “almost certain that he would not retaliate in the event of an attack”.[cdlxxx] Gorbachev did Reagan one better. After he assumed leadership of the USSR, Gorbachev was walked through a simulated nuclear strike so that he would know what to do should the unimaginable ever happen. As he sat there being told that missiles were flying toward the Soviet Union, Gorbachev refused to take part in a retaliatory strike. “I will not press the button even for training purposes,” he said.[cdlxxxi] The two men with the most powerful nuclear arsenals in the world were thus committed to never using them—though neither could be sure that the other felt the same.

I heard this being discussed on a pod cast - it was the reason I bought the book.