The Transcendent Threats of the Age

Of the plagues, famines, pestilence, and disease that have visited humankind for millenia, our society faces its own unique combination of threats. Of course, there are two components in addressing any threat: understanding its nature and formulating a course of action. There will be a number of threats to choose from. Some rank avian flu high on the list (Mark Helprin, "The Worst Generation Faces the Greatest Peril", The Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2006, vol 6:4), others terrorism. Some even rank climate change as the transcendent threat of our time.

Bret Stephens writes about threats in today's Wall Street Journal (Global View, March 4, 2008) as follows:

"Among politicians, the case is still being made sotto voce. When Barack Obama lists the "common threats of the 21st century" as "nuclear weapons and terrorism, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease," the suggestion is that Islamist terrorism is one of many problems, and not, as John McCain insists, the "transcendent issue of our time.""

Well, we all have our own bogeymen. Somehow the idea of a nuclear jihadist in Manhattan or Paris seems to me more of a threat than whether a few costal towns might have to be moved because of rising waters. Some even attribute the genocide in Darfur to climate change, another "battle over resources", a chimeric case if ever there was one.

Now we come to the choice part: of Obama's list of threats, which will receive funding, resources, and attention and action in an Obama administration? Will the formulation of a new Kyoto agreement rank in importance with fighting nuclear proliferation? Of course, the US, with its vast resources, can address multiple issues simultaneously. But there is a difference between a laundry list and a prioritized set of policies.