Cold War or GWOT - Which were safer times?

[Winston702]

Please state which and why.

[Deja Q]

1. Crime statistics between 1948 and 2005 speak for themselves.

[nankerphelge]

2. Now is safer...

There were a couple of close calls with massive nuclear exchanges. Even if the terrorist got ahold of a nuclear weapon, they could take out only a small part of one city. It would still be horrible, granted, but the idea that we should live in constant fear is ridiculous.

[longship]

3. The Atomic Scientists disagree.

They have 1948 and now at the same danger level. Granted it's a SWAG (scientific wild-assed guess) but the doomsday clock is as good a measure than anything else on this matter. The Bulletin does tend to be very careful and deliberate before they move the hands of the clock.

www.bullatomsci.org

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. The real fear that kept me awake at night

during the cold war was the concept of all out nuclear exchange, subsequent nuclear winter and the end of all human life.

Movies like Testament and The Day After brought the message home. I was a young mother and ruminated constantly about how to keep my children safe in a house with no fallout shelter or even basement.

Now we worry about safety out in public, at football games, in the air, etc. And there is always the possibility of a limited nuclear exchange. But I just don't sense the same level of annihilation threat.

The flu kind of has me freaked, though. Mostly because of the toll it took after WWI. But that is the WOT.

Good question, though.