Could the Fallout franchise be taken as a warning against thermonuclear war?

So I was watching The Atomic Cafe earlier today. I love old propaganda films mostly because some of them are so full of it that I have to avoid drinking anything while watching them because I might spit it all over everywhere in a fit of laughter. Kind of like the other day when I was eating soup and a MittvMitt.com commercial came on for the DNC. I almost spit soup all over my apartment and then proceeded to laugh my ass off.

Anyway that's besides the point right now. While watching The Atomic Cafe I started to think about how the Fallout franchise "mirrors" it. The Atomic Cafe holds the mirror of truth up to the United States. It shows us how utterly ridiculous we acted at the beginning of the Atomic Age. Part of the reason why I love studying the Atomic Age is because of how ridiculous our reaction to it was. We acted like complete morons in the face of catastrophe and I often feel like we're still acting like this. Especially during the 90s when we were so happy about the Cold War being over that we began to severely under fund our local, state, and federal civil defense and emergency management agencies. (Any pre-9/11 airport goers remember how lax security was?) We're still doing it too! My boyfriend works in emergency management and I have to say for the kinds of hours they pull and the nature of the work that they carry out and the BULLSHIT that they have to deal with, they should probably be paid more than anyone.

Boyfriend: "I really hate how stupid people are when it comes to their own safety. We tell them NOT to do something and then after a natural or man-made disaster they act like it's our fault. Then we have to clean it up! WE TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT! WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT THAT?! But of course it's our fault." -_-

Me *thoughtful*: "So basically you're everyone's mom?"

Boyfriend: 

Me:

So I would like to take a moment to think about the Fallout franchise from the viewpoint of an emergency manager, of which I am not. I am a historian/librarian/information scientist, NOT an emergency manager, but when you spend most of your time with one, you start thinking about the world from their view point. So I'm starting to look at my favorite video game from a different view point. 

Some lessons and warnings:

1. Don't piss off the Chinese/Russians/Any country with enough nukes to seriously hurt us.

2. Do not worship false idols (sounds like the Commandments huh?). By false idols, I mean the atom. From what I can tell in the world of Fallout, before the Great War, the people "worshiped" the atom and even idolized it. Well look at where that got them. And then the Children of Atom do it again! WTH?!

3. Be prepared.

4. Don't take clean water for granted.

5. If you want everything to look like crap, drop a bomb on it, and refuse to clean it up even 200 years later. (Just because everything has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb doesn't mean that you can't tidy up once in a while! Moira gets this! Even though she's a pain in the ass...)

6. Atoms should be used for peaceful purposes. And I am NOT a stupid hippie. Hippies suck.

Cuba: It will fall like the Soviet Union.

When the Soviet Union fell, there were many factors that went into it. The democratic revolutions had started in 1989, but they had been going on underground long before that. Czechoslovakia had always been a problem for the USSR along with Yugoslavia. The Balkans have always been a troubled place just like the rest of Europe.

But the biggest problem was the aging Soviet guard. Gorbachev realized that the leadership was aging and that young people were not seeing things the same as the older generation. They wanted change. They wanted to be like the West.

I see the same thing eventually happening in Cuba. Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, recently implemented a major reform in Cuba, allowing people to buy and sell property for the first time since 1959.

Sure a reform like this could mean nothing, but I see one of two outcomes for Cuba in the next fifteen years.

1. When the old order dies out, Cubans will take back their country and have a democratic revolution that will open the country. My ninth grade history teacher predicted that Cuba would eventually become a democratic nation and would open itself to tourism from the United States.

 or...

2. Cuba becomes the mirror of China. I like to call the Chinese "pseudo-Communists." While they still call themselves Communists, Marx and Lenin would never recognize Chinese Communism as it is today. They are more concerned with crushing the United States through economics than anything else. I can see Cuba taking this path.

How will Cuba play out? I can't wait to see.

Wait... what?

That's what you're gonna being saying after you read this post.

When I introduced my boyfriend to Fallout 3 over a year ago he asked me why everything looked like crap in the game. Not the game itself, I mean the landscape of the game.

Boyfriend: What's wrong with the roads?

Me: There was a nuclear apocalypse over two-hundred years ago. That's what's wrong with the roads.

Boyfriend: Why haven't they fixed them? Why hasn't anyone cleaned up?

Me *bad poker face*: Well isn't it obvious?

Boyfriend: ...

Me: ...

Seriously, why hasn't anyone cleaned up or worked to make things better if the war took place over two-hundred years ago? The radiation levels are low enough in most parts of the Wasteland to enable people to safely start rebuilding. Manufacturing could have started up again by this time.

And you know what? Just because the world died in fire doesn't mean that someone can't pick up a broom and sweep up a little every now and then.

And this is where you say "Wait... what?"

The End.