Nuclear paranoia non-existent in Fallout's world?

[pkt-zer0]

So, I was under the impression that Fallout's world was one where science progressed according to what people thought in the US of the fifties. The exception being that people didn't only fear the end of the world resulting from nuclear apocalypse, it actually happened.
However, so sayeth another guy, nuclear paranoia is only what Fallout's world is based on, but not widespread in the actual game.

Now, I'm not much of a Fallout scholar, but from the games I got the impression that people there wouldn't really take nukes lightly, flinging around a nuclear catapult and whatnot. Could anyone point me to specific parts of the game that support this idea or the contradicting one?

 

[Hotel California]

Now, I'm not much of a Fallout scholar, but from the games I got the impression that people there wouldn't really take nukes lightly, flinging around a nuclear catapult and whatnot. Could anyone point me to specific parts of the game that support this idea or the contradicting one?

From the first game? Uh, none actually!

But thats why we all take offence at the thought of a nuclear catapult ... Its so ridiculous an idea that purely is there as a BFG kind of item for the console kiddies.

But this isn't really anything new I suppose

 

[Wooz]

I don't know about 'specific parts', the whole game is built around the notion of the fifties' nuclear scare... And the irony that the very thing that nearly destroyed humanity in a nuclear war, saved it from extinction in the post-nuclear world.

Subsequently, the whole concept of a nuclear slingshot in Fallout fits the setting like Japanese-squealing pokemons in a Bergman film.

 

[Vault Maker]

Maybe everybody has just learned to stop worrying and...

Anyway. Most of the inhabitants of the post-war world in Fallout may not understand nukes. They probably don't think they're a likely threat in the present or future. They may believe them to be part of nearly-mythological past. Any of those would explain why the "atomic culture" of the 50s isn't overtly present. Merely some of it's remnants.

There ought to be exceptions though. The Followers (being educated) and the BoS (descended from the pre-war military) ought to have a healthy fear of nukes. The Enclave should be bomb-loving types, in the "we can use these things for excavation" mould.

Nuclear catapults are just idiocy. I wouldn't waste any more precious brain activity on it's Fallout-world social context.

 

[Russell]

The creation of the Vaults all in themself is a massive sign of paranoia.

Even in the real world the paranoia of the 50's never reached those levels.

Backyard survival bunkers, and some for high end politicians and other world leaders, sure.

But dozens and dozens of massive Vaults like Fallout has?

Nadda.

 

[Azrael-Arkangel]

The creation of the Vaults all in themself is a massive sign of paranoia.

Even in the real world the paranoia of the 50's never reached those levels.

Backyard survival bunkers, and some for high end politicians and other world leaders, sure.

But dozens and dozens of massive Vaults like Fallout has?

Nadda.

The Vaults were designed for social experiments, they didn't make them with the objective of protecting people...

 

[Tagaziel]

The creation of the Vaults all in themself is a massive sign of paranoia.

Even in the real world the paranoia of the 50's never reached those levels.

Backyard survival bunkers, and some for high end politicians and other world leaders, sure.

But dozens and dozens of massive Vaults like Fallout has?

Nadda.

The Vaults were designed for social experiments, they didn't make them with the objective of protecting people...

Social experiments on a grand scale AND to preserve humanity. Big difference.

 

[Kanhef]

I think people aren't too worried about nuclear weapons because:

1. Most were already used in the war.
2. The government/military controlling them is gone.
3. There isn't anything left worth bombing.

 

[.ICBM.]

I think people aren't too worried about nuclear weapons because:

3. There isn't anything left worth bombing.

Well, I can imagine that the Enclave would gladly have a few dozen nuclear 'bunker busters' to elliminate the Brotherhood of Steel bases. And how the BOS slipping an nuclear warhead onto the ship that takes it to the Enclave base?

 

[Azrael-Arkangel]

Social experiments on a grand scale AND to preserve humanity. Big difference.

So, after the experiments the vaults would open and the people inside starts the recolonization? Something like that?

And how the BOS slipping an nuclear warhead onto the ship that takes it to the Enclave base?

What? AFAIK, the nuclear warhead that blows up the Enclave Base was already there...

 

[Tagaziel]

Social experiments on a grand scale AND to preserve humanity. Big difference.

So, after the experiments the vaults would open and the people inside starts the recolonization? Something like that?

Yeah. A social experiment doesn't mean the inhabitants will be unable to recolonize, vide Shady Sands founded by the inhabitants of Vault 15, Vault City (unfortunately) of Vault 8, Adytum and similiar.

 

[Azrael-Arkangel]

Yeah. A social experiment doesn't mean the inhabitants will be unable to recolonize, vide Shady Sands founded by the inhabitants of Vault 15, Vault City (unfortunately) of Vault 8, Adytum and similiar.

You're right... Now that I think about it, Vault 8 was a control Vault, destined to open and recolonize... So it makes sense that the rest will too after finishing the experiments.
The thing is that based on the fact that the Enclave wanted to kill everyone in the mainland made think that they didn't care about "preserving humanity".. but that was planed after the war.

 

[xdarkyrex]

I think that its fair to assume that the stigma attached to nukes would naturally make some people seek it out for its power. Thats the nature of such things, I find it entirely reasonable that the Enclave would have a few nukes laying around, even after the destruction of the oil rig, and its also likely that the remaining Enclave that werent on the oil rig have regrouped since FO2 and have nukes with them. Also, the Brotherhood of Steel strikes me as another group that would pursue nukes, even if simply as a deterrent and thing to study that they intend never to use but presents a threat of force against their enemies. To me, the Enclave VS the BoS in a nuclear stand off seems entirely possible if they both got a hold of the technology.

 

[TheBadDoctor]

Nukes in Fallout fall under the same category as most "Legendary Widgets of Unimaginable Power" in high-fantasy games. Your Triforce, your black materia, your infinite snowglobe of doom, etc..

They're symbols of vast destructive power, have had a significant role in shaping the world's history, can easily fall into the wrong hands and be abused, and at the dramatic pinnacle of whatever arc they're involved in, they make a bunch of pretty lights and loud noises.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

I can easily imagine the Brotherhood of Steel stealing that nuke from Megaton if the Fallout 3 plot was written by the BIS devs. They would probrably say that they are protecting them too.

I also think it's funny that there's a big, working nuke just sitting some kilometers of Washigton DC. And the Mutants haven't stolen it, even if it's just for threatening rights.

 

[The Guardian]

In the early fifties before the horrors of nuclear radiation were known the people of America romanticized the notion of nuclear armaments. They would consider them to be adorable little tools in which to spread peace. The "Atomic Cocktail", "Atomic Cafe", the many songs with a nuclear theme and the propaganda of that age signify this. The people of Fallout are the natural evolution of these 1950s Americans, who were not exposed to the horror propaganda of nukes and therefore do not see these weapons as evil in themselves, which is why in the game people casually refer to nuclear weapons and not point them out specifically as why they are in the state that they are in. I'm sure that a crazy man running the streets of the Hub crying out the evil of nuclear weapons would be outed out as a loony very quickly, most likely ending up in Old Town, hm...

 

[Bullseye]

I don't think the inhabitants think the nuclear weapons are like a myth, for instance: do you think roman catapults or wy2 bombers are a myth too? That is something people just don't forget even though it didn't happen last year or something.
I would rather think that the people in the Fallout world don't have the idea that there is someone who is still powerful and rich enough to do such a thing. their country is, as far as they are concerned, leaderless. Why else would the trading and using of drugs like Rad-X an RadAway still be going on?

In short: The scars the land shows and the memories of the past they see around them make the people probably think that the nuclear weapons that caused it, is something to fear.