Overview

The planet is sick. Human beings are guilty of damaging it. We have to pay. Today, that is the orthodoxy throughout the Western world. Distrust of progress and science, calls for individual and collective self-sacrifice to ‘save the planet’ and cultivation of fear: behind the carbon commissars, a dangerous and counterproductive ecological catastrophism is gaining ground. Modern society’s susceptibility to this kind of thinking derives from what Bruckner calls “the seductive attraction of disaster,” as exemplified by the popular appeal of disaster movies. But ecological catastrophism is harmful in that it draws attention away from other, more solvable problems and injustices in the world in order to focus on something that is portrayed as an Apocalypse. Rather than preaching catastrophe and pessimism, we need to develop a democratic and generous ecology that addresses specific problems in a practical way.

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Reviews

Pascal Bruckner is a brilliant writer -- astute, learned, broad-ranging, mordant, sometimes mischievous, and sometimes prophetic. He is one of the handful of writers around the world who define the intellectual history of our time. Paul Berman, author of The Flight of the Intellectuals With his usual verve and eloquence, in The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse Pascal Bruckner offers a bracing and provocative critique of an ever-more-pervasive and fanatical Green politics and ideology. For Bruckner, the ecological catastrophism the latter promotes constitutes less a salutary call to action than a return to the politics of guilt encouraged by exhausted ideologies, religions, and religious institutions, the Catholic Church in particular. This book will please some and consternate others, but its intelligence and originality make it an important book for our times. Richard Golsan, Texas A&M University For anyone who has had enough of being harangued for single-handedly destroying the planet for future generations, Pascal Bruckner's new book will come as a welcome breath of fresh and unpolluted air. Normandie

A sizzling new polemic against apocalyptic environmentalism. San Francisco Chronicle Pascal Bruckner is a brilliant writer -- astute, learned, broad-ranging, mordant, sometimes mischievous, and sometimes prophetic. He is one of the handful of writers around the world who define the intellectual history of our time. Paul Berman, author of The Flight of the Intellectuals With his usual verve and eloquence, in The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse Pascal Bruckner offers a bracing and provocative critique of an ever-more-pervasive and fanatical Green politics and ideology. For Bruckner, the ecological catastrophism the latter promotes constitutes less a salutary call to action than a return to the politics of guilt encouraged by exhausted ideologies, religions, and religious institutions, the Catholic Church in particular. This book will please some and consternate others, but its intelligence and originality make it an important book for our times. Richard Golsan, Texas A&M University For anyone who has had enough of being harangued for single-handedly destroying the planet for future generations, Pascal Bruckner's new book will come as a welcome breath of fresh and unpolluted air. Normandie

As stylistically gratifying as he is intellectually lucid, Bruckner presents a clear alternative to the accepted thought on one of this era's hottest topics. Publishers Weekly A sizzling new polemic against apocalyptic environmentalism. San Francisco Chronicle The best tonic for stale science communications I've read in a while. Cool Green Science Pascal Bruckner is a brilliant writer - astute, learned, broad-ranging, mordant, sometimes mischievous, and sometimes prophetic. He is one of the handful of writers around the world who define the intellectual history of our time. Paul Berman, author of The Flight of the Intellectuals With his usual verve and eloquence, in The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse Pascal Bruckner offers a bracing and provocative critique of an ever-more-pervasive and fanatical Green politics and ideology. For Bruckner, the ecological catastrophism the latter promotes constitutes less a salutary call to action than a return to the politics of guilt encouraged by exhausted ideologies, religions, and religious institutions, the Catholic Church in particular. This book will please some and consternate others, but its intelligence and originality make it an important book for our times. Richard Golsan, Texas A&M University For anyone who has had enough of being harangued for single-handedly destroying the planet for future generations, Pascal Bruckner's new book will come as a welcome breath of fresh and unpolluted air. Normandie

Author Information

Pascal Bruckner is the author of many books including The Tyranny of Guilt, Perpetual Euphoria and The Paradox of Love. He writes regularly for Le Nouvel Observateur.

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