Sam Harris

We might completely lock down our system in the United States and feel that it's really perfect.

The chance that we're going to do something by accident is zero.

Of course, we could

never achieve that.

But even if we did, the best possible case, we're at the mercy of whatever China and Russia and other possible adversaries.

And North Korea.

Yeah.

How good are their systems?

It's incredible that we're in this situation.

And then you read, I'm sure you've read Eric Schlosser's book, Command and Control.

Yeah, it's a masterpiece.

You read about the preparations we have made for the continuity of government, and it is a dark comedy.

The steps we've had to take to figure out what to do in the event of a full-scale nuclear exchange

It's so deeply impractical and insane.

Again, it's easy to see how we have escalated ourselves into this untenable situation.

You've got this perverse ratchet that just keeps turning in one direction, but that we got there and we're left with the machinations that...

that we imagine is going to safeguard our survival.

It's just, it's bonkers.

So let's take those separate cases.

Let's talk about Russia and Ukraine first.