Join us for an author talk about the recent book Headed Into the Abyss with Massachusetts author Brian T. Watson. 

This is an in-person only event. 

 Independent of the pandemic, we are beset by a range of unprecedented developments that together, in this century, threaten the very existence of civilization. The current states of just ten forces - capitalism, technology, the internet, politics, media, education, human nature, the environment, population, and transportation - are driving society in predominantly negative ways.

These forces are powerful and interconnected and their combined dynamics will carry us into any number of disasters well before 2100. We have the knowledge and solutions to address our difficulties, but for many reasons we will not employ them.

There is urgency to this story. We face many threats, but one of them - the internet - and its hegemony and imperatives - is rapidly changing nearly everything about our world, including our very capacity to recognize how profound and dangerous the changes are.

Headed Into the Abyss is unique in a number of ways. It is unusually comprehensive, presenting a satisfyingly round story of our time. It crosses disciplines, connects dots, and analyzes how each force - in synergies with other forces - is shaping society. Individually, we tend to see and address things in parts, but the forces shaping our lives exist now in ecologies that defy piecemeal solutions.

Also uniquely, Watson brings human nature and trauma into his assessment of the future. People have limitations, and these are playing a large role even now. Taking real people and their emotions into account, and the adjustments and the rate of change that real people can make, Headed Into the Abyss is honest and frank about our present predicaments and our likely future.

What is all adds up to - the big picture - is a sobering conclusion. 

Brian T. Watson is an architect and cultural critic. For 18 years, he was a columnist with the Salem News in Salem, Massachusetts, focused primarily on current affairs and the forces that were and are shaping societies both here and abroad. 

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Library.