Strong upvote for the comment. I think the situation is even worse than what you say: the fact is that had Petrov simply reported the inaccurate information in his possession up the chain of command as he was being pressured to do by his own subordinates, nobody would have heard of his name and nobody would have blamed him for doing his job. He could have even informed his superiors of his personal opinion that the information he was passing to them was inaccurate and left them to make the final decision about what to do. Not only would he have not been blamed for doing that, but he would have been just one anonymous official among dozens or hundreds who had some input in the process leading up to nuclear war.
We know who Petrov is because he refused to do that, and that’s also why he faced professional sanctions for his decision. This ritual turns that on its head by sending people personalized “launch codes” and publicly announcing the name of the person who chose to “press the button” and shaming them for doing so. It’s absurd and I don’t understand why so many people in the comments see it only as a “minor problem”.
Strong upvote for the comment. I think the situation is even worse than what you say: the fact is that had Petrov simply reported the inaccurate information in his possession up the chain of command as he was being pressured to do by his own subordinates, nobody would have heard of his name and nobody would have blamed him for doing his job. He could have even informed his superiors of his personal opinion that the information he was passing to them was inaccurate and left them to make the final decision about what to do. Not only would he have not been blamed for doing that, but he would have been just one anonymous official among dozens or hundreds who had some input in the process leading up to nuclear war.
We know who Petrov is because he refused to do that, and that’s also why he faced professional sanctions for his decision. This ritual turns that on its head by sending people personalized “launch codes” and publicly announcing the name of the person who chose to “press the button” and shaming them for doing so. It’s absurd and I don’t understand why so many people in the comments see it only as a “minor problem”.