Scott Johnson, A Great Man in the Making Revisited

I had promised that on August 27, 2010, I would write an in-depth article how Scott Johnson had saved the world. I had not the time to do so until today. Nevertheless, I hope that his name, Scott Johnson, will be in every household and recited by every schoolboy in the future as the man who saved us from nuclear holocaust.

I had the nuclear codes on August 26, 2010 and it would have been used had not Scott intervened. He said, "Why brood and hate, just because of some unavoidable personal misfortune? You are given the awesome responsibility to preserve life at all costs unless human life is unnecessary in the modal sense." By that he meant that if at a point in time, destruction and anguish and suffering is unimaginable, then it would be time to euthanize the human race.

Such a condition would occur if the oppressed will stay forever oppressed without ever having hope of redemption. And I would necessarily have to be one of those so oppressed that I would know without any shadow of doubt that it is worse than living hell. And furthermore, the decision is not conscious. I would be so busy slaving away satisfying 99 demanding customers and the 100th one demands to know the time. I would also have no watch. And so I would reply, "And from me you wish to know the time?"

Of course, such an incident never happened and we are alive today. Therefore, whether this is antecedent or posterior logic, the upshot is that Scott saved the day --- I did not push the button. And the rooster crows, the sun rises, and so a million lights of the city go dim and taxis begin to stir. Joe and Molly are going to work!