The Myth of the End of the World

Abstract

I once read of someone (it might have been Bruce Chatwin) who was in the audience when Gregory Bateson gave a talk in London about the threat of nuclear annihilation. Ever the pedant, "Chatwin" rose during question time to remind Bateson that people had been fearful about the end of the world around the end of the first millennium, too. Bateson stared him down and replied, "Yes, but this time it's real."