Celebrating the Value of Deadly Problems Worldwide

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This is an effort at appreciative inquiry into the array of problems with which humanity and the planet is confronted. Rather than bemoan such problems, and seek in vain for remedies to them, there is a possibility that one may learn from thinking "positively" about them -- in the mode of "positive thinking" widely-advocated by the privileged (Being Positive Avoiding Negativity: management challenge of positive vs negative, 2005).

This is therefore an exploration of how to smile at the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as they are expected to emerge in "end times" apocalyptic scenarios -- and as they are already evident to many, despite vociferous denial by the few. The approach follows from an earlier exploration Liberating Provocations: use of negative and paradoxical strategies (2005) following experience in the elaboration of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (1976-1994).

This appreciative approach may also be seen as a form of anticipative exploration of the conditions so ably analyzed by Jared M. Diamond (Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, 2005) and Thomas Homer-Dixon (The Upside of Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization, 2006). Especially valuable is the argument of the latter concerning the need of current civilization to develop the skills of "degrading gracefully" through to navigate the predictable challenge of the collapse phase of the adaptive cycle -- understood as essential for civilizational resilience. Failure to acquire such skills might be compared with the faith-based expectations of Armageddon, possibly to be triggered by the unexpected, as analyzed by Nassim Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable, 2007) -- or as explored elsewhere (Spontaneous Initiation of Armageddon: a heartfelt response to systemic negligence, 2005).

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