Tip-Off #151 - Doomsday
Tip-Off #151 - Doomsday
"Faith is the bird that, sensing the light, sings not of dawn, but of trust in the night." ― Rabindranath Tagore, poet/polymath from Bengal.
The Doomsday Clock has been inching closer to midnight for years. Recently, the Atomic Energy Commission reset it to 11:58:30, leaving us with 90 seconds. This alarming announcement, made at a press conference, felt routine. The phrase "Repent for the End is Near" has become a tired joke. The Apocalypse competes for attention with Trump rallies, and even those are losing attention, except in the media.
Initially, urgent language can spur action on issues like COVID and climate change. However, over time, its effectiveness wanes. In response to the great emergencies of our age, complex problems become rallying cries, inspiring righteous responses that alienate those who do not share the same sense of alarm. Moving beyond alarmist language and engaging contrary perspectives would be more conducive to developing effective solutions than simply following what polls best. Some have grown so accustomed to "the sky is falling" that they won't notice until it does. Others need a threat to feel alive. Hell keeps heaven interesting.
When Hurricane Milton approached Florida, many ignored evacuation orders despite warnings of a catastrophic storm surge and continuous footage of a veteran forecaster in tears. Evacuating isn't always simple—it requires resources like transportation, money, and time, which many lack. Traffic jams, gas shortages, and past evacuation challenges discourage people, especially vulnerable groups like the disabled, nursing home residents, and prisoners. To improve evacuations, leaders should build stronger shelters, arrange transport for at-risk populations, allow pets in shelters, and better educate the public with advanced communication strategies.
Thoughtful planning requires time and effort, yet crises quickly become the new norm, collapsing under their own weight. The urgency of global warming pales in comparison to the immediacy of gas shortages or being stranded on your roof. Systemic change must make sense locally, or it risks becoming just another cause for urban elites who can afford the time—and the price tag. Doomsday, after all, takes money. Even existential crises often depend on resources and privilege.
William James observed: "We only find reasons persuasive when our perception of reality aligns with the same conclusion." When urgency drives the news cycle, and crises become a constant diet, it is difficult to distinguish between what is real and what merely feels real. It's always Apocalypse Now: Doomsday makes money—with "90 minutes until midnight" just another title among countless others declaring "the end” of some long-held belief. Over a dozen books have gone for the grand prize: “The End of Everything.” An underlying theme persists: “Life after Death,” now bolstered by “Powerful New Evidence.”
"Love over death" would be a better title. This echoes the poet Czesław Miłosz, who spoke of what others term the "treasures of darkness," though without the gloss. Addressing major matters in a minor key, Miłosz composed the poem A Song on the End of the World as Nazi forces ravaged Warsaw, razing it after the Uprising in 1944. He depicts the ordinary and peaceful aspects of life that persist amidst a world facing destruction—confounding those who jump to Armageddon. In the poet's words, this bewilders "those who expected lightning and thunder/ and those who expected signs and archangels."
Miłosz's portrayal of the commonplace amidst destruction acknowledges catastrophe while presenting a counterpoint. The return of the ordinary is a “second coming.” In a world consumed by violence, cynicism, or indifference, what still holds true doesn't need permission—just less knowingness.
"On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net. . .
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world."
Warsaw, 1944
Notes and reading
“Faith is the bird, that sensing the light..." - Attributed to Rabindranath Tagore, this saying resonates with his poetic sensibility. Tagore was from what is now Bangladesh and West Bengal—a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter (died 1941). Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. His broad spiritual universality complements Czesław Miłosz's historical particularity as if the deepest realities must be both all-encompassing and deeply rooted in specific experiences.
2024 Doomsday Clock Statement - Science and Security Board, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January 23, 2024).
Hurricane Milton - “There are reasons people stay in harm’s way, and it’s not just stubbornness.” The Conversation (October 10, 2024).
William James - Quote abridged from The Sentiment of Rationality (1879; 2024), 3-61.
It's always Apocalypse Now." - At last? That would please the new authoritarians who bank on the demise of democracy.
“Life after Death,” now bolstered by “Powerful New Evidence.” - Stephen Hawley Martin (2017). The author says that it's never too late to make amends, even if the being is already dead. (Completely unintentional satire.) Martin, a respected ad executive with a prominent agency, has won numerous awards, including First Prize for Nonfiction from USA Book News.
"A Song on the End of the World" - from The Collected Poems 1931-1987 by Czeslaw Milosz (1988). Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. CHESS-vahf MEE-wosh.
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins - Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (2021). Fungal ecologies, forest histories, and the promise of cohabitation in a time 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.]
About 2 + 2 = 5: https://williamgreen.substack.com/about - revised
Thanks for your response! Re emergency and democracy--and surely important to keep in mind in the upcoming election--all U.S. presidents have access to the "emergency box" containing the Presidential Emergency Action Documents (PEADs)--a set of classified documents that U.S. presidents can use during national emergencies to invoke sweeping executive powers to manage "national crises," including the authority to take control over the military, communications, or other national resources. These documents are classified and their exact content remains largely unknown to the public. - It's unnerving to think of who gets to define a "national crisis" when this is a matter of executive judgment. ! - Yes, again, to Miłosz's "ordinary and peaceful aspects of life that persist . . ." Only because I learned about the horrific circumstances in which he wrote that did I dare quote this. - I appreciate very much the quality of your reflections, including your sobering reference to Schmidt.
Hey, thanks, Deb(orah!) - Great to hear from you again! You were certainly a godsend to all of us at Plymouth. - Yes, about Milosz. I recently rediscovered him, thank goodness.