Changing Anxieties

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones had a post the other day listing what he worries about over the next fifty years.  In order, he says:

1. climate change
2. robots (for real... interesting case he links to)
3. immortality (yep)
4. bioweapoons
5. energy

I would probably swap 3 and 4, but otherwise I thought it was a pretty good list. Then it occurred to me how extraordinary it is that nuclear war or nuclear terrorism does not appear. And that got me to thinking about what this list might look if it were 1962, fifty years back, when nuclear war was everyone's apocalyptic anxiety of choice. Maybe...

1. nuclear war
2. communist revolution
3. robots (hey, they must have been on people's minds. The Jetsons aired in primetime in 1962. And by the way, that jazzy little theme song still gets it done.)
4. brainwashing
5. and, of course, SPECTRE