[Peace-discuss] Bromwich essay

[Brussel, Morton K]

I liked it, and it even gave me a little, stress little, hope for Yale, here he teaches.

A quote:


Senator Bernie Sanders was recently asked<https://www.wmur.com/article/sanders-reacts-sharply-when-asked-if-he-would-be-capable-of-launching-nuclear-weapons/27670076>, “Do you feel you would be capable of using nuclear weapons in defense of the country?” He answered with bitter sarcasm, “Oh, yeah, anytime!” -- and to make the meaning of “greatness” clear, he added: “Am I capable of blowing up the world?” The interviewer responded that he believed whether or not a politician would order a nuclear strike was “a great moral question.” To this Sanders responded, “It’s a great immoral question.”

There are questions that should never be answered, because they degrade anyone involved in answering or even listening to them. The overriding legitimate question for governments today is this: Will the world end in fire or in flood -- in nuclear catastrophe or climate catastrophe? With the exception of scientists<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html>, a few<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/us/politics/aoc-green-new-deal.html> politicians<https://e360.yale.edu/features/tackling-climate-change-governor-jay-inslee-has-a-plan-for-that>, and increasing numbers<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/24/latest-global-school-climate-strikes-expected-to-beat-turnout-record> of school-age children, most citizens and most of our leaders are looking away from the flood while greeting the fire with clichés as familiar as lullabies. …

The full article is smart:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176573/tomgram%3A_david_bromwich%2C_what_it_means_to_be_%22great%22_on_a_planet_going_down
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20190619/ed380d65/attachment.html>