A generation fed on a daily diet of apocalyptic gruel is bound to overindulge in hyperbolic discourse. But obsessing about intractable problems or, worse, about trivialities manifestly unworthy of hysteria, by deflecting attention risks allowing genuine dangers to become more insidious. Like metastatic tumors, eventually it is too late to reverse course. Paradoxically, however, the advanced democracies are especially vulnerable to distraction because success and prosperity breed overconfidence. In fact, potential annihilation is hardest for young elites to fathom. How refreshing, then, to find the much-needed warning against complacency trumpeted by someone born in the same year the Iron Curtain disintegrated, thereby enhancing the chances of its reaching the very constituency that most needs awakening (in contrast to wokening, with apologies for the intended pun).
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