Doomsday

Addressing the Psychological Origins of Our Death Spiral

Since the election, members of the public have asked, “What happened to Dr. Lee?”  There was even an article titled, “Has Anyone Checked on Dr. Bandy X. Lee?”  As I have stated from the beginning, I am a medical practitioner, not a political activist; I only intervene where there is a chance of palliation or cure.  Now, we must live out for a while the condition we failed to prevent.

At the same time, I need no longer hold back my critique of the Democratic Party: Merrick Garland at least was only silent and missing in action.  Nancy Pelosi actively crushed every viable intervention, making clear that she would protect power, no matter in whose possession it was—and mobilized her own cult of personality against anyone who dared to point out her actual deeds.  This is just a small sampling of the compromised conditions under which not only the president-elect’s unrestrained recklessness but social, cultural, and geopolitical violence, criminality, and psychological terror are set to be unleashed.

In a recent interview, renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone stated: “World War III may be inevitable.”  Stone’s major movies and documentaries include his groundbreaking work with Prof. Peter Kuznick, who recently spoke at our National Press Club conference in Washington, DC.  Stone had experienced war as an infantryman in Vietnam, which led to his first anti-war blockbuster, “Platoon”.

Even if somehow we managed to avoid civilization-ending worldwide explosion, horrendous proxy wars and even genocidal conflicts are underway with millions of casualties and multiple destroyed nations.  The Ukraine war has already had moments when the first wartime use of nuclear weapons since WWII was being prepared.  We are now at another such moment: the U.S. just authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles to attack Russia directly, to which Vladimir Putin signed a decree lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

The threat of total annihilation continues to mount.  The wars in the Middle East have already reached unprecedented genocidal proportions, with what is increasingly our direct participation in the bombing, if not financial or political subversion of many countries in that region.  In the past few years, after what seemed not too long ago a period of mutual growth and understanding, the U.S. and China are now visibly and vocally preparing for a “great power” conflict in the Pacific, with the U.S. rushing to surround China with a Pacific NATO-like military alliance and China building up a formidable military to fight back.  The Japanese organization that recently won the Nobel Peace Prize said on accepting the award that what is happening in Gaza tragically reminds them of what happened to their country.    

This is the precarious state in which a literal madman will be reentering the White House.  This situation did not begin with him as President 45, but it may well end with him as President 47.  We should not allow his rhetoric to misrepresent who he really is: “I am the most peaceful person,” or “I never start any fights,” are exactly the talking points of violent perpetrators—who do nothing if not reverse victim and offender, so that they can perpetrate more.

And even if full-scale WWIII is avoided and Stone’s inevitable prediction remains hanging over us, climate destruction is fast escalating in many ways in many places, no longer a worrisome prospect sometime in the future but visible here and now as never before.  The world gallops toward a “catastrophic” 3.1 degrees-Celsius temperature rise over preindustrial times, as even COP29 is being coopted for denial.

In the interview with Stone, reference is made to a censored documentary he made in 2015 about the history of Ukraine and the American efforts to bring about a pro-NATO, anti-Russian revolution in that country.  That documentary ends with an exposé about the Doomsday Clock at what was then thought to be at an ominous three minutes to midnight.

Modern-day official keepers of the Doomsday Clock are neither nuclear scientists nor those who are truly independent.  They are in fact well-established persons with past high-level government positions who are connected to the Council on Foreign Relations as well as to corporate funders.  If I were a voting Doomsday Clock keeper, I would have already moved the Clock at least another 20, maybe 30, seconds from the 90-second mark from midnight where it is today—and I would demand that Clock keepers be free of the political and financial conflicts that constrain us.

Hence, if anyone is asking where I am these days, I would say: I warned for eight years against making a particular man the “nuclear guardian” for our country and our world.  But for at least a decade more I warned against our Death Spiral, or “collective suicidality”—as I lectured in my “Causes and Cures of Violence” classes at Yale College and wrote in my textbook, Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Causes, Consequences, and Cures.  Given where we find ourselves today, I am turning my attention to the foundational changes that we need—which may reach as far as to require a “change of soul.”

I conclude with a well-grounded approach for our place and time I have come across:

As our enemies seek to normalize our annihilation and disposal, we will refuse to abandon each other.  The work before us is creative, tactical, and strategic, and we must rise to it thoughtfully, in collectivity.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee will hold a live session on:

“How to Navigate an Increasingly Dangerous World”

Friday, November 22, 2024, at 12 noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT on Zoom.  A paid subscription is required to receive a link the morning before.  Thank you!

Dr. Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist, president of the World Mental Health Coalition, and cofounder of the Violence Prevention Institute. She became known to the public through her 2017 Yale conference and book with 26 other psychiatrists and mental health experts that emphasized the importance of fit leadership.  In 2019, she organized a major National Press Club Conference on the theme of, “The Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” In 2024, she followed up with another major National Press Club Conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” She also published another book with 39 other psychiatrists and mental health experts, in addition to a volume explaining how unfitness in a leader spreads, and spearheaded two critical statements on fit leadership. Dr. Lee authored the internationally-acclaimed textbook, Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Causes, Consequences, and Cures; over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters; and 17 scholarly books and journal special issues, in addition to over 300 opinion editorials.