One of the more sobering indicators of our time is the Doomsday Clock, which remains at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it's ever been to complete calamity. In addition to the atomic scientists' original concern about possible nuclear conflict, climate change and the possible dangers of Artificial Intelligence are now prominent parts of a potentially combustible mix. In short, there is much to fret about for anyone paying attention.
True, some might argue it was ever thus. One of the more widely known quotations from the Bible, after all, is that life is a vale of tears. To judge from the current state of the world, the author of this cheery maxim may have been on to something.
Although I'm an agnostic, I have some sympathy with the idea that human evolution was never likely to end in the proverbial stable and secure 'good life'. Yet this idea still underpins the political rhetoric of many political leaders, especially in the wealthy West where the possibility of peace and plenty did seem within reach in some of the more privileged parts of the developed world like Australia. But even if we are not as directly affected by old-fashioned and seemingly inescapable conflicts of a sort that continue to wreak havoc in Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and the almost comically misnamed Holy Lands, it is impossible to remain unaware of the immense suffering they inflict.
Or it is if you are sensitive to the fate of those less fortunate than yourself, at least. Under such circums.
