Final Countdown for Our Democracy

The Urgency of One World or None

For some time, I have been warning of the urgency of pursuing Albert Einstein’s dream—actually an imperative for him—which he spent his last years fervently promoting: “One World Or None.” Indeed, the metaphorical “Doomsday Clock” he and his colleagues created, soon after they recognized the unprecedented destructive powers of their scientific discoveries, rather than counting in minutes as it always had from 1946 to 2020, is now counting in seconds and doing so more loudly, quickly, and ominously than ever (the political compromises of the actual Bulletin notwithstanding).

I cannot but continue to observe that humanity is on the fast track toward Armageddon, that it is caught in a spiral of collective suicidality, and that we may well become the first species on earth to bring about its own annihilation. There is no greater concern that every man, woman, and thinking young person should have right now, for “leadership” seems largely concerned at this moment with covering up their own mistakes, if not causing the mistakes in the first place.

What we have is a dastardly propagation of weapons of mass destruction, as an act of denial, with the very possible outcome that many hundreds of millions, if not billions, will perish in unfathomable ways. And this is not even the greatest threat, of course, as the problem is not external but internal to humanity’s psychological state.

Today, however, let us assume that the human race can avoid the Doomsday Clock’s metaphorical Midnight and keep World War III, already underway, confined to proxy wars, an insane arms race, and “just” millions of deaths—along with the vast expenditure of human resources and talent, all devoted to destruction, rather than concerning themselves with human prosperity, at a time when a Golden Age was within greater reach than ever.

I have emphasized that neither I nor my colleagues began speaking publicly for political reasons. Rarely in politics has there been a time when mental health experts have spoken up as we have, following the first election of Donald Trump. It was simply an historic moment when our knowledge and expertise happened to be the most critical—and could not be substituted. I have also pointed out the uniqueness of our moment, vis-à-vis a “Hitlerian” figure already with the power to annihilate the world in an instant, and with a media and social media environment that could carry his symptoms far and wide, beyond national borders.

I was just recently in an extended meeting with some leading thinkers from around the globe (mostly academics), who exceptionally came together with bold themes that transcended the usual boundaries we ourselves place on the topics of our discussion. I commended the organizers for including mental health (myself) among mostly political scientists and experts in international affairs. This was a rarity, since the American Psychiatric Association—which I always have to emphasize is a private trade association, despite its name—stigmatized the entire field of mental health since the first Trump administration, in order to curry political favor.

As a result, our collective understanding in the area where it was most critical for our survival remains primitive—and as I predicted, this lack of knowledge would become the cause of our “Death Spiral.” By failing to address this public health problem, the U.S. has now become the most dangerous country in the world, which would not only devour its own political processes but topple the existing World Order and threaten the annihilation of the human species itself.

Those who have followed my writings and public speaking since 2017 will be aware that I have consistently insisted that my assertions arise not from a political perspective, but a medical perspective. When we held our second major conference at the National Press Club, almost exactly a year ago on September 27, 2024, with the same theme as the above title, I opened the conference with the phrase: “This is not a political conference; it is a medical conference.”

The organization I helped cofound eight years ago, the World Mental Health Coalition, will soon be issuing our fifth and most urgent Prescription for Survival, which is in truth a Prescription for Democracy.

The relevance of our perspective is seen in a recent column in the Guardian, by an eminent British political scientist, Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford:

During seven weeks in the U.S. this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of U.S. democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault. There’s a growing body of international evidence to suggest that once a liberal democracy has been eroded, it’s very difficult to restore it. Destruction is so much easier than construction.... All democrats, irrespective of party or ideology, must hope the Democrats regain control of the House [in the 2026 midterms] not because of the Democrats’ policies, which are a muddle, or their current leadership, which is a mess but because … I return to Europe from the US with a clear conclusion: American democrats (lowercase d) have 400 days to start saving US democracy.

Prof. Garton Ash eloquently and poignantly warns of the dire predicament we are all in together in this moment. Just as he points out the need for all democrats (lowercase d) to come together, I urge all democracies (indicating societies that represent our collective mental health) to unite in not just facilitating a political choice between “bad options” but in preventing a course that is dangerous, frighteningly destructive, and must be avoided, whatever the means.

Please read and ponder this important recent column in the Guardian, titled: “Americans Have 400 Days to Save Their Democracy.”

If in the year ahead our country descends further into an authoritarian-neofascistic-dictatorship, brought about by a dangerous personality leading a coalition that both manipulates him and he manipulates them—a coalition of war-mongering neo-conservatives, extreme Jewish Zionists, misguided Christian Evangelicals, and—yes—compulsive followers of Charlie Kirk, then democracy (again, a state of collective mental health) may be completely lost. And if we cannot stop American fascism—or, “mental pathology in politics,” as I have defined it—one that is rushing to entrench the world in World War III, with its renamed Department of War and greatly expanded war budget—then the Doomsday Clock will further accelerate and the possibility of preventing Armageddon potentially lost forever.

A magazine cover seen in kiosks abroad, translated, “Mental Health: Symptoms of a Broken World”

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee is holding weekly live sessions on:

“Recovering Ourselves in Order to Recover the World”

The next session will be this Saturday, September 20, 2025, 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 who became known to the public through her 2017 Yale conference and book 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 Conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” She published another book on fit leadership that has been recently expanded, in addition to a volume on how unfitness in a leader spreads and two critical statements on fit leadership. Dr. Lee warned that journalists and intellectuals are the first to be suppressed in times of unfit leadership, and it is happening here; she continues, however, to be interviewed or covered abroad, such as in France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Canada (with notable articles in Estonian, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Persian, Hindi, and Korean). She authored the internationally-acclaimed textbook, Violence; over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters; and 17 scholarly books and journal special issues, in addition to over 300 opinion editorials. Dr. Lee is also a master of divinity, currently developing a new curriculum for public education on “One World or None.”