Venturing Past Psychic Numbing: Facing the Issues

We have, or soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far as this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ore gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned. The same will be true of other planetary systems. On each of them there will be one chance, and one chance only.

There is an almost gravitational pull toward putting out of mind unpleasant facts. And our collective ability to face painful facts is no greater than our personal one. We tune out, we turn away, we avoid. Finally we forget, and forget we have forgotten. A lacuna hides the harsh truth.

In that frightening era from the 1950s to the 1980s and perhaps even part of the 1990s, the only way many of us managed to maintain our psychological health was by making use of psychic numbing. Intelligent, well educated, alert to the physical and human environment, and aware of the potential disasters that could come from the presence of nuclear weapons and the nuclear industry, we individually and collectively withdrew our minds from contemplation of the awesome possibilities of a nuclear holocaust. We concentrated to the best of our abilities on other, more pleasant, aspects of living. Further, we were so convinced by the sheer scale of the military-industrial establishment, the awesome power of the nuclear bombs, and the huge security force assembled to provide guard, that resistance would be totally futile anyway. More than any technology of the past, the bomb meant that running away was impossible.

Every now and then an event, announcement, prediction, or other warning triggered our minds into fleeting moments of panic, alleviated only by our subsequent withdrawal of attention to what could happen. Truly, the nuclear age was a time of psychic nu