Chernobyl

The HBO mini-series, Chernobyl, began this past weekend. It's a dark story of the multiple human errors—in execution and far more important, in judgement—that resulted in the greatest civilian nuclear disaster in human history. But there's a secondary lesson that can be learned from Chernobyl, and it has more to do with group think, with the desire to suppress alternative views and opinions, and inadvertently, to obscure or muzzle the truth—all in the name of communist party loyalty. As a consequence of these things, dozens of people (actually, a surprisingly small number) died unnecessarily and thousands were put in immediate and long-term danger of radiation poisoning. All because the truth conflicted with the party narrative.

Some might think that Chernobyl is another Hollywood-generated anti-nuclear power film a la "China Syndrome," but the creator of the film, Craig Mazin, disagrees. He tweeted:

“The lesson of Chernobyl isn’t that modern nuclear power is dangerous. The lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous.”

Hmmm. "Lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism." I can think of one group that has trafficked in those things over the past few years. "Lies" that became a hoax that continues to roil our politics and damage our country. "Arrogance" that suggests that there is only one way to think about things, and "suppression of criticism" that has seen left-leaning major social media platforms censor/ban people that oppose the narrative. (Spare me the argument that crazies like Alex Jones are representative of the people who have been censored/banned. They. Are. Not.)

Ironically, the same group that traffics in "lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism" is a collection of minor league communist wannabes who think that the state can and should control our lives and the narrative in all things. Just like the party apparatus that was in place during Chernobyl, the wannabes think the narrative trumps all. And just like the party apparatus that existed when Chernobyl happened, they are dangerous.