Kevin Phillips was promoting his new book “American Theocracy” on CNN the other nite. Summarizing his analysis in one sound byte, he said that his research indicates that the overwhelming majority of American evangelicals and other sects of the Religious Right no longer care about deficits, economics, the environment or even competent government. According to Phillips, this majority of voting Americans is now waiting in one form or another for the imminent End Times or Rapture. Alan Brinkley, reviewing Phillips in the Times, says:
If there is a single, if implicit, theme running through the three linked essays that form this book, it is the failure of leaders to look beyond their own and the country's immediate ambitions and desires so as to plan prudently for a darkening future.John Morris Roberts touched on this obliquely in his “History of the World” and the companion “A Short History of the World”. With events fractalizing increasingly rapidly, turning to works such as Roberts' can provide some altitude and perspective. For this post, the narrow issue is Roberts' brief summary of anthropological research on hominids' evolution giving rise to humans 2 million years ago in Africa.