Are we on the brink of human extinction? Is civilization destined toward self-annihilation? We must not underestimate the risk of the possibility that we may become extinct fairly soon. We are facing a planetary ecological crisis with runaway greenhouse gas emissions, environmental destruction, extreme climate change, human overpopulation, global catastrophic hazards including the threat of world war, nuclear holocaust, bioterror, pandemic infectious diseases, famine, water scarcity, religious fanaticism, techno nihilism, public health calamities, obscene disparities in wealth and poverty, civil disorder, and the anathema of evil that could bring about the end of the world. Philosopher and psychoanalyst Jon Mills provides the first book of its kind that examines the ominous existential risks that could bring about the end of civilization. Drawing on the psychological motivations, unconscious conflicts, and cultural complexes that drive human behavior and social relations, he offers fresh new perspectives on the looming fate of humanity based on a collective bystander disorder.

In this timely book, the author explores the emergencies that could ignite an apocalypse. As we stand idly by as passive global bystanders in the face of ecological, economic, and societal collapse, we must seriously question whether humanity is under the sway of a collective unconscious death wish.