Center for a New American Security

My friend Ahmed found this in a book review from 2005:

Outside the pages of historical romance, it seems the old heroes are dead. We don't permit them to exist. We tend to agree with a more recent global hero, Charlie Chaplin, who wrote: "I'm sorry, but I don't want to be emperor. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone."

This is in some ways a tribute to the maturity in our society. The classical hero was driven, from an early age, by a false and lonely conception of himself. Alexander strove to forge an image and attract worshippers. He was haunted by the competition of dead men and the need to out-do everyone who had ever lived. He was half-aware that his own greatness was partly an act and he gave his life with a social fiction called "honour" for a fantasy called "heroism". To move beyond this is a partial enlightenment.

Yet what is its replacement? The old idea gave a purpose and possibility to human life - it celebrated humanity through the idea of super-humans. We are all now reduced to the last moments of Don Quixote. We still fantasise about heroes like Alexander but when we try to realise our fantasies, we do so half-heartedly - pursuing an idea which we suspect is not only impossible but also ridiculous.

Today, the world's largest particle collider opened at the CERN.

By late fall, scientists will have begun to collide particles at 5 trillion electron-volts, working up to 7 trillion electron-volts.

The director of the CERN lab assures us that the world is not about to end after numerous studies.

The director of Fermilab, the world's now-second-largest collider, tells us that "That there are many theories [about what happens in these collisions] means we don’t have a clue," said Dr. Oddone. "That’s what makes it so exciting."

Hmm, reassuring...kind of like a comic book mad scientist. In fact, doesn't this kind of sound like the plot to Spiderman II?

Just in case, it may be time to stop procrastinating on contacting that long lost friend or that reconciliation with your sibling....after all, if things look like they are going wrong, expect the European Union to get working on it about 4 years after the end of the world.