Ultimate Dangers: An Unprecedented Culture of War

‘Catastrophic Consequences’

These two words combined, “catastrophic consequences,” have been uttered around the world in alarming ways that are unprecedented.  They are coming not just coming from academic experts or provocative pundits.  Nor just from the United Nations Secretary-General with regard to the climate disaster, which also merits these words but which is gradually creeping up on our world rather than being imminently explosive.

At the top of a growing list, extremely dire warnings have come from the most senior leaders of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and beyond.  Rather than merely be swept up by these words, we need to step back and assess what is happening.

The main result of this rhetoric is that the global culture is shifting, and the world is becoming increasingly inured, acculturated to conflict, and anticipatory of war.  And this is when we need to be brutally honest about the effects of this kind of provocative, belligerent, and militant posturing.

Psychiatry knows very well that the mental symptom most predictive of violence is paranoia—not actual threat or external circumstances.  That the United States has led the way in adopting a militaristic(-industrial-profiteering) stance that precludes diplomacy, multilateralism, and holding abusive leaders accountable—including our own—has not helped.

At the same time, our country is not lacking in courageous truthtellers about American foreign policy, such as my esteemed colleague Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University.  Others have been Richard Falk of Princeton University, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, Seymour Hersh, Christopher Hedges, and Ray McGovern.  Still others I wish to elevate include: Daniel Ellsberg, who is now terminally ill; Stephen Cohen, who died in 2020; and my dear friend and Nobel Peace Prize recipient on behalf of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Dr. Bernard Lown, who departed in 2021.

I highlight these extremely thoughtful, independent, and principled voices, because our mainstream media, so infiltrated by corporate and government interests, is no longer able to advance an innovative, intelligent, or even life-preserving vision that can guide a healthy global culture at this time.  When the sui generis dangers of our world—as a result of the sheer force and technology of our weapons, multiple nations owning them, and mentally-impaired individuals increasingly seizing positions of power—threaten humanity’s own survival, it becomes a mental health problem that we need to address and to resolve.