Doomsday Clock 2019: The ‘Oh Shit’ Moment

Today, the Doomsday Clock was unveiled at 2-minutes-to-midnight. For the second year in a row, we are as close as we have ever been to apocalypse.

The Doomsday Clock has long been a reminder of our capacity for self-destruction. The time is set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), founded in 1947 by Manhattan Project scientists like Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein. The gloomy mood was best captured in Oppenheimer’s recitation of the Bhagavad-Gita, ‘now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’.

A poetic and poignant ‘oh shit’ moment if ever there was one.

Fast-forward to now. The US, Russia and China have their feet on the starting blocks for a new nuclear arms race. Then there is the global sleep paralysis on climate change. Let’s not forget the other thousands of threats lined up like a teetering spiral of dominos.

The president of BAS, Rachel Bronson, is right, ‘we appear to be normalising a very dangerous world’. Welcome to the ‘new abnormal’.

There is another reason for the clock-hand’s position; how we are talking about these problems. Specifically, the ‘insidious corruption’ of information by cyber trolls and political elites alike.

All well and good then. So what?

I habitually break polite society’s convention that it is improper speak about politics. Thankfully, I’m in good company. It seems like politics is all we can talk about.

On one hand, it is the ultimate cathartic outlet. I’ve been in shouting matches inches from my best friends’ faces one moment, then laughing with them the next. Nothing is gained, nothing is lost. A simulated Fight Club.

Then there is the other hand. The silent yet persistent suspicion that nobody knows what they are talking about. Not the Trumpeteer or Brexiteer you’ve blocked. Not the politician you’ve elected. Not the string of [insert-here] experts shouting from the carousel of 24-hour news and op eds. Not even the good people at BAS. Least of all, you. What’s more, the stakes are real, and they are high.

All well and good again, now what?

I think there is an alternative way. Maybe, just maybe, if we had better tools to sift through the mess, we can critically think about what is going on for ourselves. So, I’ve decided to start this project to explore ways, old and new, to analyse the world. Then maybe, and it is a much bigger maybe, we can get to the bottom of these problems clearly and constructively.

Who knows, the clock might dial back a minute or two.