Keynesianism, then, was a doctrine of catastrophe-unless: the worst can still be avoided through swift and decisive political action… George Watson (1977). “The Myth of Catastrophe.” In his Politics and Literature in Modern Britain, Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa, NJ.
Unlike half a century ago, the doctrine of catastrophe-unless now holds far wider. Inequality, the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, racism, militarism and so much more can only get worse, unless swift and decisive political actions are taken.
Watson was interested in understanding the fatalism of British literary intellectuals over capitalism in the Thirties. By extension, it would now seem we’re all intellectuals in our negativity, artificial or organic. “There is the sheer intellectual prestige of pessimism,” writes Watson. Ditto: “Many men, and especially intellectuals, would rather be thought alarmist than complacent.”
So what? “What is more, it is supremely satisfying to the aesthetic sense to watch a drama in which all the virtue is on one side.” In this view, “Life just cannot meander on. Intellectual nature abhors a vacuum; and if one apocalyptic vision is taken from mankind, like the Christian [one], then the same instinct will take itself to another.” Watson seems to believe the latter, however, is not also part of the meandering.
WHEN COMPLEX IS AS SIMPLE AS IT GETS 