Sliding Past the Shadows of Catastrophe: The Place to Start: A 21st Century Essay on Identity and Survival

We have entered an age of gathering shadows, of existential threats which could cascade together into an obliterating storm: climate change and its accumulating fallouts; the darkening possibilities of nuclear war; the undermining of our life supporting environment; the risks of uncontrollable pandemics; of massive displacements of populations, of genocidal conflicts, of economic overreach and collapse, of tyrannical restrictions on freedom, thought, and constructive creativity. As severely...