ABSTRACT
A pure line of destruction started from the widespread iconoclastic fury against medieval Catholic art and churches in many parts of Europe by Calvinist mobs in the sixteenth century, with orders even from the governments in Britain and Germany. 'A clock can be wound too tight', said Tom Hayden of the New Left, referring to the Chicago police authorities readying for the fight with American radicalised youth. The 'Yippie Manifesto' demanded an immediate end to the war in Vietnam, legalisation of all drugs, the abolition of money, the promotion of 'full un-employment' ending the drudgery of work, abortions when desired. Whatever the contemporary advantages of the technological realisation of the world, whatever the celebrated manifest content of this 400-year-old dream, people cannot escape the latent will to destruction involved in the splitting of the atom, the splicing of genes, the humiliation of species, the large hadron collider, embryo experimentation, cloning and reproductive technologies.
