Even the prospect of early annihilation

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Even the prospect of early annihilation should not keep us from making the most of our days on this unhappy planet. In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. And it would be a crime against Nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were presumably designed in the first place, and which the gravest statesmen and the hoarsest politicians hope to make available to all men in the end: I mean the opportunity to do good work, to fall in love, to enjoy friends, to sit under trees, to read, to hit a ball and bounce the baby.

~ Alistair Cooke

1 thought on “Even the prospect of early annihilation”

  1. The main problem with enjoying early annihilation is whether you can actually tell if it’s coming or not.

    Take this climate change/global warming bit. Some say it’s all man-made/some don’t, some say man won’t be able to live here soon/some disagree with how ‘bad’ it will get.

    Both sides seem to forget that just a few decades ago we were running scared of the cold war breaking down and the nukes pushing us into a mini ice age (nuclear winter I think they called it.) And we had a volcano blow its stack that dropped the temperature a whole degree or so.

    The problem with nuking ourselves cooler is of course what’s good for one place may not be so nice for the rest of the world. (I’d love to see summer highs of 27C in SATX, but I think NY and London might not like it that cool. 😉 )

    That of course is the slow-motion train wreck we have way too much time to watch/wonder what’s going to happen when.

    Then there are the ‘fast’ early annihilation things we are told will happen. If you know it’s the end you might as well time it so all your cards are maxed out the day you’re supposed to leave this Earth — only to have the doctor be wrong and you didn’t have three months to live (or that ‘second coming’ thing a while back, I heard a lot of people were ‘very’ surprised when the next day came, and the one after that …)

    Or you could get hit by a bus while planning your ‘early annihilation’ party – always look both ways (and up/down) …

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