What if David Bowie really was holding the fabric of the universe together?
\nThe death of David Bowie in Janu ary 2016 was a bad start to a year that got a lot worse: war in Syria\, th e Zika virus\, terrorist attacks in Brussels and Nice\, the Brexit vote&md ash\;and the election of Donald Trump. The end-of-year wraps declared 2016 &ldquo\;the worst &hellip\; ever.&rdquo\; Four even more troubling years later\, the question of our apocalypse had devolved into a tired social me dia cliché\;. But when COVID-19 hit\, journalist and professor of pu blic policy Andrew Potter started to wonder: what if The End isn&rsquo\;t one big event\, but a long series of smaller ones?
\nIn On Decline : stagnation\, no stalgia\, and why every year is the worst one ever\, Potter surve ys the current problems and likely future of Western civilization (spoiler : it&rsquo\;s not great). Economic stagnation and the slowing of scientifi c innovation. Falling birth rates and environmental degradation. The devas tating effects of cultural nostalgia and the havoc wreaked by social media on public discourse. Most acutely\, the various failures of Western gover nments in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. If the legacy of the E nlightenment and its virtues&mdash\;reason\, logic\, science\, evidence&md ash\;has run its course\, how and why has it happened? And where do we go from here?
\nThis event is presented in partnership with Words Worth Books.
\nRegistrants will receive an e-mail 24 hours before the start of the program with an in vitation to join.
\nProgrammer: Nancy
\n