Fatal Attractions

Abstract

What is striking about a fatal prognosis for human civilization is not simply the tenacity with which it is proclaimed but the appeal of the message. The fascination with end-of-the-world scenarios is analogous to the direct, personal experience of catastrophe. In the chance viewing of a terrible car accident, one wants to avert the eyes, but there is a gruesome, prurient, and shame-ridden magnetism which fixes our attention upon a scene of ultimate horror and death. The finality, the futility, the evident despair, even the sheer mess of despoliation, are absolutely riveting.