The Coming age of scarcity: preventing mass death and genocide in the twenty-first century

1998 ChoiceReviews  
Foreword xiii despair is not the solution. To let despair have its way would be to give every genocidal act a victory that it does not deserve and must not have. Where mass death and genocide are concerned, however, what is the solution? Is there such a thing? Perhaps, but if so, what ingredients does it contain? Responses to those questions-good and thoughtful ones-are found in this book's pages. As they draw to a close, I would add only two words of recapitulation: a warning and then a fact.
more » ... he warning: "If we stop remembering," says Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, "we stop being." The memory and analysis of mass death and genocide found in this book warn against despair. The effect of that warning can be to sensitize us against indifference, which is despair 's best friend and evil's welcome accomplice. As for the fact, the essays in this book can sensitize us against despair and indifference because history shows that human-made mass death and genocide are not inevitable and no events related to them ever will be. We know this because human-made mass death and genocide emerge from decisions and institutions that depend on ordi nary human beings who are responsible for their actions and who could act differently and better than they often do. If we heed the warning and do not deny the fact-especially in an age of scarcity, mass death, and genocide-we will keep working to mend the world's broken heart. Despite much of its content, then, this book awakens, haunts, and challenges me in ways that I ignore at everyone's peril. I trust it will do the same for you. Aeknowledgments The two of us came to the study of scarcity and conflict from different disciplines and from different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. That we could produce this joint effort is a tribute to the centrality of the issue, to the respect we have for each other, both personally and profession ally, and to our commitment to multidisciplinary work and interchange. We have spent more than a decade studying genocide, fascism, and other forms of human cruelty. Those of us who study mass death do so in the hope that it will preserve life. We don't want our subject to become commonplace and even familiar; we want to bring it to the forefront of public discourse. We wish to thank colleagues in our respective institutions and other friends and students who have provided an intellectual environ ment that was conducive to productive work. We are particularly grateful to the contributors for the prompt submission of their essays and the high quality of their work. We benefited from several review ers whose comments helped make this a better book and from the advice and counsel of Louis Kriesberg, who, as always, offered honest and insightful critique and support. We are, of course, responsible for any errors that remain.
doi:10.5860/choice.36-2413 fatcat:j7m2hottlzbujjignptvxtieda