David Peat

192 From Certainty to Uncertaintying, yet his argument, that there is a deep conflict between the desirefor civilization and the underlying drives of human nature, is highlypersuasive. What other meaning, than a projection of Thanatos, couldthe symbol of the mushroom cloud that hung over the world for decadeshave? What were those generals doing with their war games asthey talked about megadeaths? Why did scientists devise a neutronbomb that would destroy human beings while leaving their buildingsintact? And, now that the nuclear threat has to some extent been defused,why do we look up into the skies for an asteroid or giant meteorto be the new bringer of death? Armageddon, we are told, will arrivefrom the stars and smash into the earth, creating great tidal waves anddust clouds high in the atmosphere that will block sunlight for yearsand produce the equivalent of a nuclear winter.The very opposite of this desire for death should surely be the drivetoward life and a passion for the natural world. Yet even within theenvironmental movement itself one can find hints of Thanatos. It existsas the fantasy of a major ecological disaster that will wipe out humancivilization (a variant of the Native American story of the GreatCleansing). 2 Much of the human race will be destroyed as nature fightsback, and only small, simple communities of like-minded people, caringfor the earth, will be left. In this sense, while the environmentalmovement is motivated by the highest ideals, by its love of the naturalworld and the right to life of all species, it is also associated with aprofound sense of guilt at being human—another factor in Freud’sanalysis of the human situation. In some instances this can erupt asanger and rage against those who are perceived to be the various enemiesof the natural world. Guilt and rage, combined with a desire toresolve all tensions through a metaphoric form of death, can contaminateecological thinking.Thanatos has been manifest in the mass suicides among religiouscults. It is present in extreme political groups that stockpile weapons in2When I write of the “fantasy” of ecological disaster or an asteroid impact I donot mean to suggest that such an event could not occur. I am using the term more inthe psychological sense of an event, real or imagined, that becomes a focus for emotionallycharged acts of imagination.