In 2008, let us challenge the Politics of Apocalypse | spiked - The Diigo Meta page

• 10 Jan 08
  

  Yule Heibel

  The issues that Furedi raise have been bugging me for a couple of years now -- ever since running into James Kunstler and his ueber-successful economic project of making a living off scaring the pants off people. I find refreshing Furedi's spin on the matter -- that we seem to be losing "humanism" (in what I feel is a medievalist world view), and I appreciate his lament that "Public figures appear to have lost the capacity to reassure or lead people." Disaster sells, including at the polls/ in the voting booth.

  apocalypse criticalthinking frank_furedi opinion political_correctness public_opinion spiked_online

  • In the past year, the threat of doom – from weather, terror or disease – became an everyday, even banal issue. It’s time to inject a dose of humanism into public debate.
  • any doubt expressed on the issue of climate change is looked upon as an act of bad faith or ‘denial’.

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      Yule Heibel on 2008-01-10

      - which is scary in itself
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • Public figures appear to have lost the capacity to reassure or lead people. Instead, they frequently opt for evoking frightening futuristic scenarios where the line between fiction and reality become unclear. In every respect, the sensibility that underpins public debate today can be described as a ‘crisis of nerve’. This crisis over the future coexists with a powerful sense of disorientation about the status and worth of the human species itself. Increasingly, humanity is represented as the biggest problem on the planet, rather than as the harbinger of a better future.
    • One consequence of Western societies’ obsessive preoccupation with the apocalypse-to-come is that less and less creative energy is devoted to confronting the all too important problems that exist in the here and now. Take the global credit crunch unleashed by the sub-prime home loan crisis this year for instance.

      • 

        Yule Heibel on 2008-01-10

        - exactly
    • In terms of its material impact, this was arguably the most significant event of the year. After more than a decade of economic stability, the world economy faces the threat of a major recession with important implications for people’s lives. This threat may not make an exciting plot for a sci-fi movie, but it has a direct bearing on the quality of life of millions of people. It also raises important questions about an economic system that is so heavily reliant on using fictitious capital to reproduce itself. Unfortunately, however, today’s future-frightened public debate about economics seems more interested in finding ways to transform capitalism into a carbon-free, green-leaning system than in discussing the steps we need to take to minimise the destructive impact of a global recession on people’s lives and aspirations.
    • Worst-case thinking, the principal legacy of 2007, will most likely thrive in the years ahead. That is unless we can rediscover a sense of purpose in what it means to be human.

Public Stiky Notes

• 
  Yule Heibel on 2008-01-10
  - which is scary in itself
• 
  Yule Heibel on 2008-01-10
  - exactly

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