Whose future? dilemma of the Gandhian eskimo

Abstract

Hope and despair are two threads of anxieties that belong to paradoxes of globalisation [1]. In a contribution to this journal 7 years ago, Jerry Ravetz [2] raised an important question whether it may be too late to do anything about ‘‘impending cataclysm’’ for our only habitat, giving a poignant account of humanity’s brushes with manmade calamaties and drawing attention to hubris and chance. There was just one response to this article, from Jeremy Geelan [3], acknowledging the irrefutability of Ravetz’s proposition that, without a keen sense of civilizational hopelessness, there is a risk to civilization itself. However, Geelan challenged Ravetz to provide solutions or keep quiet. Geelan sent out SOS smoke signals to ‘‘good eskimoes’’ (novitiates, he called them), to cull the unwelcome and unpleasant (citing how weak husky dogs not pulling the sled with vigour are slaughtered). Here was evidence how defence mechanisms hinder thinking about unthought knowns. Also, some data for how large groups comprising mass readerships could unconsciously be setting up Geelans to hush puppies (my working hypothesis) in support of Slaughter [4]