The "Big Red Button" and all of its connotations; you have heard of it, though, right?
If not, the following will be a short yet sweeping view on how it is perceived in our culture:
The "red button", as we have come to know and see it as, is a real or fictional button with various functions.
The purpose of being big and red is for its quick identification and actuation. In its more ominous forms,
the phrases are often capitalized as the Big Red Button (BRB) or the Big Red Switch (BRS).
It's perceived and popular uses, are, but never just limited to, include:
- Firing or detonating a weapon, typically a nuclear device.
- A shut-down switch for catastrophic circumstances to avert further damage or to cause it, e.g., an "emergency power-off" button.
- Causing or setting in motion a random, almost super-natural or cosmic force that can alter the reality or immediate awareness of an entire universe.
- In hacker jargon, the shutdown button or power switch on a computer, especially the red "emergency pull" switch on IBM mainframe operator consoles.
The term has also sometimes been used for the power switch on IBM PCs.
Symbolism and enduring meaning
During the 20th-century's Cold War, the "Big Red Button" (sometimes just "The Button") referred to a device used to launch nuclear weapons. A person in charge may be referred to as "having his/her finger on The Button". The disastrous consequences of a full-out nuclear war made the Big Red Button a symbol of the annihilation of humanity.
Because of this potential doomsday use, Cold-War-era fiction often featured a BRB as the final trigger for a self-destruct process. It could also represent a "nuclear" or radical solution to a problem, much like "cutting the Gordian knot", and likely lead to the BRB's use as a reset button.
One contemporary definitions of the BRB gained popularity as a plot device in Looney Tunes. The button became a running gag. A character would at some point be warned, "Whatever you do, do not press the red button." By the end of the cartoon someone would invariably press it, usually resulting in a large explosion. This attached a level of temptation to the button itself, and is often used in religious or philosophical allegory, a modern-day parallel to Adam and Eve's consumption of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
What I'd like to hear from the audience is, do you still recognize the effective imagery of a one-shot button that can alter future realities with just a flick? Where have you seen or recalled the usage of "The Button" recently? Do you think somewhere, someone, today, actually has the ability and authority to be charged with the task of guarding such a device? I'll welcome any opinions and insight one can offer here.