In his Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age , Zygmunt Bauman refers to the work of Gunther Anders on the “Nagasaki syndrome,” which Anders warned carried “the fully and truly apocalyptic potential of ‘globicide.’”
The Nagasaki syndrom “means that ‘what has been done once can be repeated over again, with ever weaker reservations’; with each successive case, more and more ‘matter-of-factly, casually, with little deliberation or motive.’ ‘The repetition of outrage is not just possible, but probably - as the chance to win the battle to prevent it gets smaller, while that of losing it rises’” (142).
It’s a gruesome sort of mimetic violence, a macabre illustration of Rupert Sheldrake’s “morphic resonance.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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