Ultimate Violence: Doomsday, Part 2

Corruption Compromises Our Capacity to Tell the Truth

On January 24, 2023, the Doomsday Clock was set closer to midnight than at any point since this metaphorical time-keeping device was devised in 1947.  Its harrowing advance to 90 seconds, however, still remains a delusional denial as a result of corruption and compromise.

In 1945, a group of respected scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, a United States-led research undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons, joined together to form the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.  The Doomsday Clock was meant to be a warning to humanity about the dangers of nuclear weapons.  In 1991, the Clock was at its furthest point from “doomsday”, at seventeen minutes to midnight, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Then the 2000’s brought a renewal of the nuclear arms race, which accelerated under Donald Trump, when the Iran nuclear deal was abandoned, North Korea entered an alarming new nuclear phase, and dangerous rhetoric from the Oval Office increased tensions around the globe.  In 2023, global crises are accelerating as catastrophic threats multiply and intensify, as Vladimir Putin adds nuclear threats to his savage invasion of Ukraine and the West is unwilling to engage at a higher level of diplomacy.

What is most alarming and adding to the existential anxiety, however, is the absence of sane voices, or even the willingness to face the true extent of the problem.

In “Ultimate Violence: Doomsday,” I noted how even the formerly admirable Bulletin has been “taken over” by establishment, government-connected interests with close ties to the State Department, CIA, and even the military-industrial complex.  Just when we need a clarion call for action and clear direction, little is forthcoming, as the institutions such as this no longer keep to the standard that science be “free from conflicts of interest.”

The Doomsday Clock finally moved after three years, by only a “palatable” amount, despite years of accelerating existential threats.  The global situation may actually warrant moving it to 60 seconds or less, and awareness of this fact could be critical for our survival.