Time bombs a-tickin’

Two visions describe where we are. “The sun shone, having no alternative, on nothing new.” And “We are closed in, and the key is turned on our uncertainty.” The first is from Samuel Beckett. The second from W.B. Yeats. In case I should attract the suspicions that go with culture, I stole both from Fintan O’Toole, Ireland’s greatest non-fiction writer, who used them in a recent article1. He was describing how we know the huge dangers humanity faces, like we recognise time bombs and their ticking. But we can’t say when the ticking stops.

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