Thinking in an Emergency, by Elaine Scarry

In the mid-20th century, Clinton Rossiter argued that one inevitable feature of the nuclear age is the state of “chronic emergency” in which we find ourselves. This forces us, he predicted, to cede ever more powers into the hands of our presidents and prime ministers, turning them into virtual monarchs. Chronic emergency causes us to surrender our democratic principals and turn over our capacities for critical thinking.

In this strange, insightful and layered little book, Elaine Scarry argues that Rossiter was absolutely right. Nuclear weapons are “monarchical weapons” that threaten the very essence of democracy. We need changes in our habits of thinking and acting that will either eliminate nuclear weapons or render them irrelevant. Thinking in an Emergency is only three chapters long—more of a long essay than a book—but its length means that you might consent to reading and absorbing the argument—and letting it trouble you.

One of the threats of nuclear weapons is that they concentrate decision making into the hands of a very few. The United States has set up a system in which the president has his singular finger on the nuclear button. Only he can choose when to use the nation’s nuclear capacity. This is, in Scarry’s view, the great threat of the nuclear age: we come to believe that certain decisions that effect all of us very intimately are best made by one person alone. That is a form of fascism and a fundamental threat to our democracy.