Oppenheimer

Made reference to watching the movie, ‘Oppenheimer’ on New Year’s Eve, and I was a little embarrassed because I didn’t know enough about it.

Of course, I knew the main parts of the story - the destruction and death and the fact that an arms race of weapons that can wipe out large portions of the population isn’t ideal.

There are plenty of atomic weapons available. Enough to blast us all to smithereens.

Yet, I didn’t, and still don’t have much of a grasp on the whole ‘how the hell does it work?’ aspect of building such a weapon.

They showed the brilliant scientists breaking down the calculations.

“I never had a grasp on Science,” I said. “And my aptitude regarding building anything is well-defined.”

“I did all right in biology and physics,” Kathy said.

“I passed biology because I sat next to Sue Bevilaqua,” I mentioned. “She was smart.”

“So you cheated?”

“I didn’t get caught.”

They showed Albert Einstein in the movie. We’d all heard that he was the smartest dude ever.

I laughed.

“What?” Kathy asked.

“If Albert were around now he’d post his theory of relativity on Twitter and Bubba from Shitcreek, Arkansas would respond calling him a ‘dipshit libtard.’”

“Seems like we got dumber,” Kathy said.

Maybe.

I recall reading a Raymond Chandler mystery from the 1940’s…

…there were arguments between conservatives and liberals included in the pages.

“Was that the best movie you’ve seen this year?” Jake asked.

“It was pretty, pretty, pretty good,” I said. 

I didn’t mention that it made me feel dumb.