| dc.description.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] | |
