The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse

Save the Earth, Punish Human Beings
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7456-6977-9
Verlag: Polity Press

Buch, Englisch, 216 Seiten, Format (B × H): 134 mm x 213 mm, Gewicht: 270 g

The planet is sick. Human beings are guilty of damaging it. We have to pay. Today, that is the orthodoxy throughout the Western world. Distrust of progress and science, calls for individual and collective self-sacrifice to ‘save the planet’ and cultivation of fear: behind the carbon commissars, a dangerous and counterproductive ecological catastrophism is gaining ground.

Modern society’s susceptibility to this kind of thinking derives from what Bruckner calls “the seductive attraction of disaster,” as exemplified by the popular appeal of disaster movies. But ecological catastrophism is harmful in that it draws attention away from other, more solvable problems and injustices in the world in order to focus on something that is portrayed as an Apocalypse.

Rather than preaching catastrophe and pessimism, we need to develop a democratic and generous ecology that addresses specific problems in a practical way.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruckner, Pascal

Weitere Mitwirkende

Rendall, Steven

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Propaganda & Kampagnen, Politik & Medien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltsoziologie, Umweltpsychologie, Umweltethik
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Umwelt und Kultur, Kulturökologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Umweltsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: The Return of Original Sin 1

Part I The Seductive Attraction of Disaster 5

1 Give Me Back My Enemy 7

2 Have the Courage to be Afraid 24

3 Blackmailing Future Generations 49

Part II Progressives Against Progress 69

4 The Last Avatar of Prometheus? 71

5 Nature, a Cruel Stepmother or a Victim? 91

6 Science in the Age of Suspicion 105

Part III The Great Ascetic Regression 133

7 Humanity on a Strict Diet 135

8 The Poverty of Maceration 149

9 The Noble Savage in the Lucerne 162

Epilogue: The Remedy is Found in the Disease 184

Notes 187

Über Autor(innen)

A provocative essay on ‘ecological catastrophism’ from a best-selling author, now available in paperback.