Disaster's Offspring: Catastrophe, Narrative, and Survival in Global History

Abstract

Displacement drives evolution. This has led to positive results, along with negative ones. Human evolution and global civilization are outcomes of relocation. It is challenging to find optimism in adversity, but, by drawing on perspectives from macro-history, humanity can better develop ideas for adaptation in the face of crisis. Our existence depends on our ability to seek con-structive ideas for the future. The effort will necessarily be intricate and flexi-ble. It is a process of individual choices, nuanced by global networking, in an adaptive system of planetary, regional, local and individual transformation. So, in the midst of distress, we can, as thinking beings and a civilization, try to find confidence in regeneration. It will depend on self-confidence and group cooperation as well as creative vision and engagement. The alternative is grim, which argues for further efforts in this process.