30 December 2021
End of the World
The new film, ‘Don’t Look Up,” posits unconscionable ambivalence towards the scientifically substantiated inevitable destruction of planet Earth by an impending disaster. Instead of Climate Change, it imagines the public’s reaction to an incoming killer comet.
One of the thought problems that it sparks is what should a
thinking person do when faced with that prospect. Accept it as fate, because we’re all going to
die anyway? Abandon reasonable
expectation and still attempt to rescue mankind through desertion of the
planet? Make a stab at promoting or
joining a movement to engineer and finance a desperate attempt to develop an
effective countermeasure?
Of course, the real lament is the disappointing helplessness
of human nature. How long will it take
for evolution to advance our collective imagination and intelligence to the level
needed for self-preservation?
