atomic proportions.  “…If transcendence emphasized the importance of the individual soul leaving the world, history emphasized it for cultures.  That is, proposed as a movement forward and above, history reached its logical conclusion in flight from earth, or in the end of the world.  The atom bomb was the first device for actually bringing it about and the desert was chosen as its natural place.” Rebecca Solnit  Savage Dreams.  A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West. return