Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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S<br />
162 far<strong>the</strong>r horizons<br />
killing fi elds <strong>of</strong> Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur. After a lifetime<br />
<strong>of</strong> observing human nature, Carl Jung concluded that “There is<br />
a terrible demon in man that blindfolds him, that prepares awful<br />
destruction” ( quoted in Jarrett, 1988, p. 1277). His<strong>to</strong>rian and sociologist<br />
Barring<strong>to</strong>n Moore in his classic study Refl ections on <strong>the</strong><br />
Causes <strong>of</strong> Human Misery concluded similarly that “mankind can<br />
expect <strong>to</strong> oscillate between <strong>the</strong> cruelties <strong>of</strong> law and order and<br />
<strong>the</strong> cruelties <strong>of</strong> changing it for as long as it leaves <strong>the</strong> globe fi t<br />
for human habitation” (Moore, 1972, p. 39). In Humanity: A Moral<br />
His<strong>to</strong>ry <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Twentieth Century, Jonathan Glover doubts that we<br />
became worse than previous societies, but says: “Technology has<br />
made a difference. The decisions <strong>of</strong> a few people can mean horror<br />
and death for hundreds <strong>of</strong> thousands, even millions, <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
people” (p. 3). Looking beyond <strong>the</strong> carnage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> past century, he<br />
proposes <strong>to</strong> defend <strong>the</strong> Enlightenment hope <strong>of</strong> a more humane<br />
world, but concludes that “<strong>the</strong>re are more things, darker things, <strong>to</strong><br />
understand about ourselves than those who share this hope have<br />
generally allowed” (p. 7). He concludes by saying: “It is <strong>to</strong>o late <strong>to</strong><br />
s<strong>to</strong>p <strong>the</strong> technology. It is <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> psychology that we should now<br />
turn” (p. 414). Philosopher Tzvetan Todorov similarly believes that<br />
<strong>the</strong> nature <strong>of</strong> evil has not changed, but its scale has grown, driven<br />
by both fragmentation and depersonalization (Todorov, 1996,<br />
pp. 289–290).<br />
Now that we are facing our largest challenge, what do we<br />
know <strong>of</strong> our own liabilities and potentials? It is easier <strong>to</strong> ignore<br />
that kind <strong>of</strong> introspection, <strong>to</strong> focus on technology or policy or<br />
anything else instead <strong>of</strong> looking inward <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> complexities and<br />
ironies <strong>of</strong> our own psychology. But I think Glover is right that<br />
<strong>the</strong> job <strong>of</strong> building a decent world will come down <strong>to</strong> how well<br />
we understand ourselves and how much we can improve <strong>the</strong><br />
“still unlovely human mind” (Leopold, 1949). The failure <strong>to</strong> do so<br />
explains in large measure why many underestimate <strong>the</strong> scope and<br />
scale <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human destruction <strong>of</strong> nature and trivialize its causes.<br />
As if caught in a bad dream, we seem powerless <strong>to</strong> s<strong>to</strong>p it. The