I got sent to the principal's office in first grade for refusing to do the under-the-desk drill, "A piece of varnished plywood is NOT stopping a nuke---it's stupid and I won't do it." The mask is the same principle---submitting to idiocy to make the grownups feel better about "doing something", no matter how ineffective or ridiculous. My BLM (Beloved Late Mother) said, "You're right, but you could have been more diplomatic about it." "You can't fight stupidity by being stupid."
Too bad you never learned the duck and cover was to get you out of the line of sight of shrapnel/fragmentation/debris, which in your case would be the flying plate glass and nuke flash.
It was never presented as magically protecting you from a nuclear strike itself.
If you're at a distance where the nuke would kill you outright, you'd be dead before you even knew you were being attacked. This drill was also being done at a time when the threat of atomic bombers (specially in the northwestern states) was still present and ICBMs were single warhead affairs with CEPs measured in miles where the targeted city could be outright missed. But the overpressure PSI they would create would be like standing center stage at a F5 tornado, throwing vehicles and debris for tens of miles around.
I got sent to the principal's office in first grade for refusing to do the under-the-desk drill, "A piece of varnished plywood is NOT stopping a nuke---it's stupid and I won't do it." The mask is the same principle---submitting to idiocy to make the grownups feel better about "doing something", no matter how ineffective or ridiculous. My BLM (Beloved Late Mother) said, "You're right, but you could have been more diplomatic about it." "You can't fight stupidity by being stupid."
I love that. How do you fight stupidity? What would your mom say?
BLM, a walking compendium of weird aphorisms™, said, "You trap more flies with honey than vinegar." I replied, "Who cares? DEAD FLIES!"
Awesome. You remind me of my eight year old. She pushes back on everything, in a good way. God bless.
Good for her! Good for you, BNLM---LONG MAY YOU WAVE!!
Too bad you never learned the duck and cover was to get you out of the line of sight of shrapnel/fragmentation/debris, which in your case would be the flying plate glass and nuke flash.
It was never presented as magically protecting you from a nuclear strike itself.
I figured that becoming radioactive vapor would render that argument specious at best, moot at worst...
If you're at a distance where the nuke would kill you outright, you'd be dead before you even knew you were being attacked. This drill was also being done at a time when the threat of atomic bombers (specially in the northwestern states) was still present and ICBMs were single warhead affairs with CEPs measured in miles where the targeted city could be outright missed. But the overpressure PSI they would create would be like standing center stage at a F5 tornado, throwing vehicles and debris for tens of miles around.
That's what the drill was to protect against.
Next time we're nuked, the survivor wins the argument. Don't give up! Hope springs eternal---it could still happen!