What if Brigham Young obtained nuke status?

[_zeezrom]

What if he somehow found the secret to making a nuclear bomb and found a way to make one? What on earth would he do with it?

I know it's a silly question.

But what if he built up an army and equipment enough to destroy and take over the government? Would he have used it to take more? Or would he only use it to defend his people in the State of Deseret?

My question is really this: was Brigham a man of aggression? Would he be considered a dangerous man and not suited for power by the folks in the US Pentagon?

[_zeezrom]

This assumes the folks at the Pentagon are reliable in such cases.

[_Blixa]

What if he somehow found the secret to making a nuclear bomb and found a way to make one? What on earth would he do with it?

I know it's a silly question.

But what if he built up an army and equipment enough to destroy and take over the government? Would he have used it to take more? Or would he only use it to defend his people in the State of Deseret?

My question is really this: was Brigham a man of aggression? Would he be considered a dangerous man and not suited for power by the folks in the US Pentagon?

That is a pretty difficult question, zeezrom. I think part of the problem in answering it is that the way you have framed it calls for us to extrapolate Young to our own times.

How about I subtract that part from your query and try to deal with what's left?

Was BY more interested in a defense of Deseret than in a conquering offensive? I'd have to answer yes. But with some provisos. He certainly used aggressive means to acquire some parts of Deseret and was quite adept at the use of threat as a defensive weapon. And of course he was not above using an arsenal of aggressive measures to keep Deseret together.

Of course, he was also very skilled at management. He oversaw a the development of not just a city, but an entire society pretty much from the ground up. I don't mean to suggest that we weigh the "good" with the "bad" and arrive at some utterly false "score" for BY, I just wanted to throw in something about his genuine talents.

I tried to keep my answer in very general terms, zeez, for brevity's sake. There is a new biography of Young due out in September. I'll be reading it then and I'll try to offer you more of my thoughts later.

[_zeezrom]

Thanks Blixa.

I was at lunch with an inactive Mormon colleague once who explained to me that he holds BY in high regard and "has no respect for Joseph Smith" and "I hate Joseph." I thought this was both very interesting and very scary. It was rare that anyone (especially someone so close to Mormonism) told me they hated Joseph Smith. "Wasn't that just like being on the side of the mobs that killed him?" I thought.

Anyway, it turns out that this guy was an irrigation canal engineer and loved how Brigham Young "got all these people to build up such an amazing network of irrigation systems in the middle of the desert." Truly, a remarkable feat... by the people. Of course, BY was not the brain behind all this development. Pre-1880 irrigation systems were primitive and largely capitalizing on the "low hanging fruit" - the easily captured water. It wasn't until the people started to update their laws and methods that the system began to flourish.

This is the kind of thing that just fascinates me about early Utah. Look at how pre-1880 water law was enforced: "For the first few years, local bishops distributed water based on their appraisal of the worthiness of the individual irrigator."

"It was during this period [post 1880] that farmers turned their attention away from building Zion based on small self-sufficient farms to improving their own economic conditions based on larger and more productive agricultural units."

Federal support starting near the turn of the century was also a huge help.

source

I believe Brigham Young was helpful in bringing passion to the community. He might have been a little dangerous but thankfully, the Feds were always there to keep him in check.

[_solomarineris]

What if Brigham Young obtained nuke status?

That ain't scary at all.....
What if Brigham were to obtain some good stuff like Viagra or Cialis?
You'd think Utah is inbred now...
Imagine what would happen then...