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The World Remains Five Minutes From Midnight
Lasrick writes "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announces whether their Doomsday Clock has been moved with this open letter to President Obama, outlining progress on a number of fronts, but also detailing what still needs to be done to avoid various threats to humanity."
From the article: "2012 was a year in which the problems of the world pressed forward, but too many of its citizens stood back. In the U.S. elections the focus was "the economy, stupid," with barely a word about the severe long-term trends that threaten the population's well-being to a far greater extent: climate change, the continuing menace of nuclear oblivion, and the vulnerabilities of the world's energy sources."
I've been seeing reports of this so called clock for a long time and I can't help pointing out that so far, for thousands of years, every single prediction of the end of the world and humanity has been wrong.
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro
If AGW is the worst thing facing humanity, then we're currently in a REALLY good situation.
What's the biggest danger to humanity? Probably nuclear winter, still.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
it makes the clock bullshit. it will never be even 23 pm. and now it's totally useless as indicator for following how the nuke situation is going.
the number is just pulled out of the ass, status quo remaining the same has pushed it closer to midnight several times. but moving it to half past eleven or whatever wouldn't be right because "they don't want to give the wrong message that you shouldn't be afraid".
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
This "doomsday clock" hasn't ticked in years. The Atomic Scientists bulletin has used it for every Cause célèbre since the day it was invented. No amount of change will ever move those hands again, because there will always be another issue to adopt, another bandwagon to jump on, another social issue to champion.
Once the threat of nuclear war subsided from the fever pitch of the 60's, they, like most anti-everything protest movements, had to find other horses to ride, preferably one that couldn't reject them. So climate change it is. And cyber technologies!!
And if we don't heed them, we are reminded (annually it turns out) that We are DOOMED, Doomed I tell you!.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
"The economy, stupid" was James Carville's coining for Bill Clinton's campaign of two decades ago. Obviously this last election was nothing about the economy, else the president who presided over it wouldn't have gotten re-elected. These chaps may be geniuses of atomic science but they make asses of themselves with the totally ignorant comment about current American politics.
... but my impression was always that the time on this particular doomsday clock was not meant to represent 'time to doom', nor even 'likelihood of doom', but rather something to the effect of 'margin of error for doom'. i.e., "given the present circumstance, how big of a mistake do we need to make to seriously fuck shit up?" This isn't prophesying, nor is it inconsistent that it hasn't much changed over the years. It is simply a reaffirmation that the potential for great harm remains, and very little effort would be required to tip that scale... According to these guys, 5 minutes worth – but how about we don't dwell too much on the metaphor?
The fact that it has always been "right next to doom" is all the evidence you need of that. There have been massive changes in the world, particularly regarding the likelihood of total nuclear war, and it budged hardly at all. It has been "the boy who cried wolf" for a long time now.
It may have started with good intentions about really showing people how close we were to nuclear war, but it has long since just been a random scream about doom with no basis in reality.
I've seen several perfectly rational intelligent friends of mine vote Conservative up here in Canada. When I tried to explain to them they they are in essance voting against their best interests, as they all work for Unions when clearly the Conservatives were anti-union, all I got was denial. They explained to me that there was nothing anti-union about them, it was all just made up by other political parties, etc...
In any case, people can be idiots. There are any number of reasons why people vote like idiots. Some don't know the issues. Others are just ignorent and don't care, or ambilivent. This is compounded by political parties that intentionally lie, mislead, change positions, say whatever it takes to get the vote, etc... Even someone paying attention can have a hard time, though if you pay attention long enough you see what is generally going on (BS). Many people identify with a particular idology, and even if it is fairy tales, will hold onto that like grim death regardless of reality (Ann Rynd, etc...), but you could easily go for the far left as well. This is my belief, and even if it is totally contrary to my personal interest I will vote that way. Also there is perception believe it or not. Up here in Canada for example, it is a pretty sad truth that you just have to drive around a bit to see how different economic groups vote generally. Downtown poor, NDP (left), Suberbia rich, Conservative (right), smattering all over is liberal (centre-left). So do you want to be assoicated with the poor and downtroden, or the successful rich? I have no doubt some simply vote a certain way simply for status. "Well I voted conservative!" (i.e. I am wealthy, or I am going to be soon, etc...). In many cases, I would also say it is pretty sad, but Old people make up a very big demographic. I would say a large percetage of them vote the same way every election, as they made their mind up about a "party" 30 years ago. Never mind what they stand for now, what the current issues are, or how the party may have changed significantly, it doesn't really matter.
Anyway I am sure there are other reasons why people make idiotic decisions regarding voting, but it isn't limited to the US, though I would say their system magnifies the situation. I think it is partially the fault of the political parties. However more fault is with the people not holding them accountable when they basically lie through their teeth for votes, and then get all disenchanted with the process as a result, decide to not pay much attention or take it lightly when really it should be treated as a big decision. Education and civics classes for youth might help eventually.