After the Apocalypse

Apocalypse is in the air, so it is as well to consider current articulations carefully, as in this poignant and original study drawing on the work of neglected philosopher Gunther Anders. Capitalism is on a collision course with nature, with its three principles of extraction, exploitation and expansion, embodied in the idea of endless economic growth. This means that what we used to regard as normal and to define as progress is in fact unsustainable, dominated as it is by the military industrial pharmaceutical complex and surveillance capitalism: 'extinction already happened if we continue with the current barbarism.' The choice before us is a stark one: radical reinvention of the world or mass extinction. The author contends that extinction is 'supraliminal' in the sense that it goes beyond our understanding when we are confronted with 'multiple eschatological tipping points.'

It is the function of prophets to issue warnings in the hope that these will not come to pass. Anders conjures this up with a carpenter saying 'let me help build you an ark, so that it may become false.' The three chapters and a postscript eloquently address the climate crisis relating to the Mediterranean, nuclear age tourism around Chernobyl and the spectre of the Marshall Islands, site of early nuclear tests. The feeling of loss and anticipatory grief is captured by the new term 'solastalgia' denoting a homesickness in relation to the destruction of ecosystems. Paradoxically, we have a sense of timelessness associated with visiting ruins. Covid-19 calls into question our predatory relationship with nature, and the author could also have mentioned the folly of gain of function research, which may well be responsible for the outbreak and which continues as I write – not enough people are aware of this issue to call for a worldwide ban on what are effectively already outlawed biological weapons, and funded by Dr Fauci's Institute! We need a major 'prise de conscience' on a massive scale in order to generate the necessary transformational energy within our global systems.