The Doomsday Clock has been approaching midnight for years. Recently, the Atomic Energy Commission reset it to 11:58:30, leaving 90 seconds. This alarming announcement, made at a press conference, felt like routine. The phrase “Repent, for the end is near” has become a well-worn joke. Apocalypse is competing for attention with Trump’s rallies, and even they are losing attention, except for the media.
Initially, urgent language could prompt action on issues such as coronavirus or climate change. However, over time, the effect fades. In response to the great exigencies of our time, complex issues gather a rallying cry and provoke righteous responses that alienate those who do not share the same sense of crisis. Rather than simply following the best polls, avoiding fear-mongering and embracing opposing viewpoints will help us develop more effective solutions. Some people are so used to “the sky falling” that they don’t notice it until it actually falls. Some people need threats to feel alive. Hell makes heaven interesting.
As Hurricane Milton approached Florida, many people ignored evacuation orders, despite repeated warnings of catastrophic storm surge and footage of veteran forecasters crying. Evacuation is not always easy. It requires resources such as transportation, money, and time, which many people lack. Traffic jams, gasoline shortages, and past evacuation difficulties have discouraged people, especially vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, nursing home residents, and prisoners. To improve evacuations, leaders are building stronger shelters, arranging transportation for people at risk, allowing pets in shelters, and educating the public on advanced communication strategies. We need to educate them better.
Careful planning takes time and effort, but crises quickly become the new normal and collapse under their own weight. The urgency of global warming pales in comparison to the urgency of running out of gas or being stuck on your roof. Systemic changes must be locally meaningful. Otherwise, it risks becoming just a cause for urban elites who have the time and the price tag to spare. After all, apocalypse costs money. Even existential crises often depend on resources and privilege.
William James said, “We can find compelling reasons only when our perceptions of reality agree with the same conclusion.” When urgency drives the news cycle and crisis becomes a constant diet, it becomes difficult to distinguish between what is real and what just feels real. it’s always apocalypse of hell: Doomsday Makes Money — “90 Minutes to Midnight” is just one of countless titles proclaiming the “end” of long-held beliefs, but more than a dozen books were chosen for the grand prize. It is. The underlying theme continues. ‘Life after death’, but now strengthened by ‘strong new evidence’.
“Love that surpasses death” That would be a better title. This echoes the words of the poet Czesław Miłosz. Miłosz spoke of what others call “treasures of darkness,” although not glossy. Miłosz composed poems taking the main matters in a minor key end of the world song When Nazi forces ravaged Warsaw and destroyed the city after the 1944 uprising. He depicts the mundane, peaceful aspects of life that persist even in a world facing destruction, baffling those who plunge into Armageddon. In the words of the poet, this is perplexing “those who expected lightning and thunder, and those who expected signs and archangels.”
Depicting the mundane in the midst of destruction, Miłosz acknowledges the catastrophe while offering a counterpoint. The return to normal life is the “second coming.” In a world rife with violence, cynicism, and indifference, we don’t need permission to remain true. It’s just that awareness is fading.
“On the day the world ends
Bees surround the clover,
A fisherman is repairing a glowing net. . .
Only gray-haired old men become prophets.
But he is not a prophet, because he is too busy.
Repeat while tying the tomatoes.
There will be no other end to the world,
There will be no other end of the world. ”
Warsaw, 1944
notes and reading
“Faith is a bird that senses light…” – due to Rabindranath Tagorethese words resonate with his poetic sensibilities. Tagore was a poet, author, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter from present-day Bangladesh and West Bengal (died in 1941). Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore’s broad spiritual universality complements Czesław Miłosz’s historical specificity, as if the deepest reality must be all-encompassing and deeply rooted in specific experience.
2024 Doomsday Clock Statement – Science and Safety Committee; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (January 23, 2024).
Hurricane Milton – “There’s a reason why people don’t do harm, and it’s not just stubbornness. ” conversation (October 10, 2024).
william james – Excerpt Quote from feelings of rationality (1879; 2024), 3-61.
It’s always Apocalypse Now. ” at last? That will please the new authoritarians who count on the end of democracy.
‘Afterlife’ has been strengthened by ‘strong new evidence’. – Stephen Hawley Martin (2017). The author says it’s never too late to make amends, even if the being is already dead. (A completely unintentional satire.) Martin is a respected advertising executive at a prominent agency and has won numerous awards, including the top award. Nonfiction from American Book News.
”end of the world song” – from Poetry collection 1931-1987 by Czeslaw Milosz (1988). Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980. CHESS-vahf MEE-wosh.
Mushrooms at the end of the world – On the possibility of life in the ruins of capitalism – Anna Lowenhaupt Zin (2021). The ecology of fungi, the history of forests, and the promise of symbiosis in an era of massive human destruction. – Tsing is a Chinese-American anthropologist. She is a professor in the anthropology department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
[I am reading this on the recommendation of Ursula Le Guin: “Amid overwhelming urgency, Tsing examines the origins and persistence of the ecological crisis, rejecting simplistic solutions. She emphasizes rational, humane responses over panic. . . a guide for the years to come.” – Le Guin.]
Approximately 2 + 2 = 5: https://williamgreen.substack.com/about – revision
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
