In the Editorial Observer by Carla Anne Robbins this morning (the NYTimes) I first read the term “old think”.  It seems that “old think” was used by the “Hawks” who thought that the U.S. at the pinnacle of nuclear power preparedness was the way our world should be and to think otherwise was “old think” or a world without the atomic bomb.  “New Thinkers” are in control of the national security “establishment” unlike its former proprietors. Lately, the driving force behind controlling the forces of nuclear destruction is trying to lead young countries away from the siren call of limitless power.

I suppose that the American heartburn over the “Axis of Evil” twosome, Iran and North Korea, is over our newly discovered place in the phalanx of powers that want to curtail and eliminate the nuclear winter that looms on the horizon – just beyond the tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes and endless rains alternating with devastating droughts.  But, perhaps we should do some “Old Thinking” just to recall the comfort of a world without “THE BOMB”.

First, I recall that dynamite and nitro-glycerin are commonly used as the core of bombs, rockets and explosives throughout the civilized world by uncivilized murderers.  When they wear uniforms, the dynamite wielders are doing just what comes naturally and we feel a bit more comfortable being blown up rather than dying slowing from radioactive poisoning.

Dueling with foils or sabers is really “Old Think”.  They go back to the days when smelting metals from earth extracted material that could be molded or pounded into interesting shapes and sharpened so that slicing opponents rendered them helpless, one at a time.  Arrows shot from bows were also of the kind of weaponry that did not usually snuff out the lives of more than one at a time.  “Old Think” was a more leisurely method of destroying one’s enemies.  Bombs full of dynamite and ball bearings and metal scrap have a way of cutting huge swaths through mobs of people trying to get out of the way.

When cannons were dreamed up by old thinkers, walls came tumbling down.

Actually, “Old Think” posits weaponless discussions where solutions are sought out through talk and negotiations. And then, there is an end to war. Eventually, there are ways to come to agreements and swords and guns and uniforms are scattered on the ground.

Then, too, just plain THINKING is a good remedy for precipitous retaliatory behavior of angry people with weapons in their hands.  Thinking is allowed, you know.  Old think is not outmoded and new think reeks of radiation.