11 June, 2025

I now live in Leatherhead, the beginning and end of H.G. Wells’s prophetic War of the Worlds (1898). Wells summoned a Martian invasion of sleepy Essex in a parable of complacency. In my last substantial contribution to Village, I charted the rise of the far right as a response to the collapse of the neoliberal consensus, the resurgence of racialised myth, and deepening inequality. I warned then that we risked sleepwalking into the abyss. We have sleepwalked into regional wars, economic fragmentation, and environmental crisis. As Arundhati Roy said of ghost capitalism, Gaia herself groans—and she would know, given India’s ravaged ecologies. This essay explores sleepwalking—personal, political, and historical—as a diagnosis of our current condition. Through literature, philosophy, and geopolitics, I argue that the true threat is not the tyrant at the gate but the passivity that lets him in. This essay explores sleepwalking—personal, political, and historical—as a diagnosis of our current condition. Through literature, philosophy, and geopolitics, I argue that the true threat is not the tyrant at the gate but the passivity that lets him in. I. The Metaphor of Sleepwalking Sleepwalking is more than a medical condition. In law and psychiatry, it signifies diminished responsibility—a mind severed from agency. Politically, it evokes inertia: societies dulled by distraction, habituated to fear, or soothed by routine. Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (1932) conjures the archetype: a society pacified by pleasure, drugs, and distraction. Bernard Marx, the reluctant dissident, seeks exile in Iceland not to escape, but to think and feel freely. His yearning mirrors our own—our need to disconnect from systems that numb rather than enlighten. II. History repeats: the sleepwalkers of 1914 I must apologise for the unoriginality of my metaphor.  Libraries groan with unread volumes for more than a century with the title ‘Sleepwalkers’. I can think of at least six. Christopher Clark’s ‘The Sleepwalkers’ (2014) shows how no one intended World War I — yet all contributed. A chain of miscalculations, rivalries, and hubris led Europe to catastrophe. The parallel with today’s world — in Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan—is chilling. Escalation becomes default; complexity is erased by binary narratives. Putin’s war, for instance, partly reflects fear of losing the Ukrainian breadbasket—a theme explored by Bulgakov with prophetic clarity. Again, the characters in his ‘The White Guard’ sleepwalk through crisis, trying to cling to a disappearing order. In a nuclear and AI-driven world, the next miscalculation might not lead to trench warfare but instant annihilation. The challenge: to manage crisis without triggering it. As ‘The Fog of War’ (2003) reminded us through Robert McNamara, overreaction is often as dangerous as passivity. III. Ethical decay and the return of brutalism In Hermann Broch’s The Sleepwalkers (1931–32), German society slides into fascism not through dramatic rupture but moral erosion. His character Bertrand, a hollow opportunist, is not exceptional —he is simply what his era produces. So too today. The collapse of ethical boundaries—”profit before people,” governance by algorithm—makes authoritarianism seem rational. Michael Haneke’s ‘The White Ribbon’ (2009) portrays how a brutalised generation becomes ripe for tyranny. Our brutality is digital, but just as dehumanising. Influencers and disinformation merchants understand this. Populism thrives by limiting choice, shaping identities, and feeding fear. There Is No Alternative—TINA—has returned in darker form. IV. Scientific progress, spiritual drift Arthur Koestler’s ‘The Sleepwalkers’ (1959) chronicles Western cosmology’s evolution. The title is double-edged: science has often advanced through intuition, not reason. Today’s technologies—AI, surveillance capitalism, genetic engineering—mirror that ambivalence. They offer promise, but also unprecedented risk. Public discourse has failed to keep up, retreating from ethics, abandoning responsibility. Koestler feared a world where science was severed from values. Jürgen Habermas warns us still: rationality without morality is not progress but peril. V. The modern orcs and their enablers Trump, Putin, Modi, Meloni, Orbán—these figures attract rightful attention. But more dangerous are the enablers: the centrists, bureaucrats, and technocrats who normalise cruelty in the name of order. Broch’s Haguenau, the polished businessman who enables the system, is today’s bureaucrat overseeing deportations or austerity. Karl Kraus, in his 1933 return to publishing with ‘The Third Walpurgis Night’, wrote ascetically: “Of Hitler, I have nothing to say.” His scorn was reserved for Goebbels—and the collaborators. The erosion of norms usually comes not from jackbooted fascists, but, dear reader, from moderates who remain silent. VI. Media collapse and the end of dialogue The digital sphere has obliterated what Habermas called the “ideal speech situation” In place of deliberation, we get outrage, echo chambers, AI-generated philosophy and algorithmic control. Dialogue has become noise. Conspiracy replaces complexity; truth becomes optional. Richard Kearney’s Touch (2021) reminds us what we’ve lost: our interpersonal reality, our shared space. Without shared meaning, politics collapses. We don’t just disagree—we live in different realities. VII. Resisting the drift Yet resistance is possible. Primo Levi, from the inferno of Auschwitz, insisted even small acts matter. Sonny Jacobs who died last week, wrongly imprisoned, spoke of “hope against hope”. Village published my eulogy. Resistance begins with speech, thought, doubt. It requires civic imagination, solidarity, and ethical clarity. We must reject both technocratic fatalism and populist illusion. We must relearn how to disagree. VIII. The need for a new Rationality What we need is not less reason, but better reason—one that includes morality, embraces complexity, and reclaims imagination. In ‘the Structure of Scientific Revolutions ‘(1962), Thomas Kuhn showed that science does not progress through steady, cumulative knowledge, but through paradigm shifts—The shift is now as we face ecological entropy, psychological dystopia  digital dehumanisation, and accelerating authoritarianism. These cannot be met with 20th-century ideologies applied by a sleepy elite. We must cultivate wakefulness — not just awareness, but responsibility. To wake is to choose. What we choose now will echo long after us. There is no need for a discarding  of reason — we need its moral and intellectual rebirth. A scroll of honour: a call to Enlightenment As Trump seeks to dismantle Harvard, California, due process, the rule of law — and others dismantle democratic norms — let us name those who

Boiling water contaminated with THMs does not make it safe; it compounds the danger. Ireland is now in clear breach of EU law and permitting a growing risk to public health. By Tony Lowes Uisce Éireann is failing to warn the public about a dual risk: the health threat posed when consumers are told to boil water that is already contaminated with dangerous levels of Trihalomethanes (THMs). That’s the stark message from Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), which has written to Uisce Éireann, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, and the Health Service Executive. Boil water notices are being issued in areas where THM levels exceed safe limits and consumers are being advised to boil water without being told that this increases exposure to harmful chemicals Our central concern is this: boil water notices are being issued in areas where THM levels exceed safe limits, and consumers are being advised to bring water to a “vigorous, rolling boil” without being told that this process increases exposure to harmful chemicals. Boiling water contaminated with THMs does not make it safe; it compounds the danger. Ireland is now in clear breach of EU law and a permitting a growing risk to public health. Boiling water contaminated with THMs compounds the danger According to the press release issued by FIE on 10 June 2025, “Ireland has failed in its obligation to provide clean and wholesome water as required by EU law and continues to supply a large number of households with water polluted with toxic chemicals.” This failure is backed up by data from the EPA, which shows that “the number of people served by ‘at risk’ public water supplies has increased again in 2023 to 561,000, up from 481,000. The increase is primarily due to detections of persistent Trihalomethanes [THM] and cryptosporidium.” One in twenty supplies failed to meet the THM standard in 2023 [1]. THMs are a group of more than 60 chemical by-products, including chloroform, created when chlorine added as a disinfectant reacts with organic materials in the water, such as peaty soil. Long-term exposure to elevated levels of THMs has been associated with increased risk of cancer, particularly bladder cancer, and adverse reproductive outcomes such as low birth weight and small-for-gestational-age infants [2, 3]. These risks are amplified in everyday domestic settings through activities such as showering and bathing, which increase both inhalation and dermal exposure to these chemicals. While the HSE maintains that chlorine cannot be reduced without risking bacterial contamination, FIE argues that “the issue can, in fact, be addressed by simple charcoal filters” [4]. Despite this, no systematic provision or recommendation for such filters has been implemented in affected areas. Issuing boil water notices for contaminated supplies without informing the public of these inhalation and dermal risks creates what FIE calls a “dual risk.” Tony Lowes explained that “boiling water with THM poses a significant long-term health hazard by releasing the toxic chemicals into the atmosphere with impacts including an increased risk of bladder cancer.” Scientific research confirms these dangers. Studies show that blood concentrations of THMs can rise five- to fifteen-fold during showering, and bathing and hand dishwashing also significantly increase THM exposure. These results underscore that boiling contaminated water in enclosed environments can, paradoxically, elevate the health risk it is supposed to reduce [2]. Despite these known dangers, Uisce Éireann continues to advise a “vigorous, rolling boil” of water without qualification. The absence of transparent warnings on this compounding risk is a major failure in public health messaging and may expose the State to liability. The problem is not hypothetical. The FIE press release details multiple affected water supplies. A brief boil water notice in Limerick affected 113,764 consumers. Persistent notices continue in: According to the EPA’s Q4 2024 Drinking Water Remedial Action List, 11 of the supplies exceeding permitted THM levels still have no plans for action and are listed as “to be submitted by Uisce Éireann” [5]. FIE notes that this issue was first highlighted in 2016, when the group lodged a complaint with the EU regarding Carraroe, County Galway [7]. The resulting 2024 judgment from the European Court of Justice confirmed that Ireland had breached the Drinking Water Directive. FIE argues that the situation has worsened since that judgment. That judgment, based on years of inaction, detailed how Ireland had failed to adequately monitor, report on, and address chemical contamination in its public water systems. It emphasised the principle of preventative action in EU environmental law, and highlighted how vulnerable communities were being left with unsafe water for years. The Court found that even when remedial action was planned, delays in implementation rendered Ireland non-compliant with its obligations. In some cases, families living in affected areas report relying on bottled water for drinking and cooking for years, at personal expense. In rural areas especially, people on small group water schemes face barriers in accessing filters or alternative supplies. There is frustration, too, at the lack of public engagement. Citizens are rarely consulted on remedial plans, and communication about risks often comes only after media attention or pressure from environmental groups. Comparatively, Ireland’s handling of THM contamination contrasts sharply with the approach taken in other EU member states. In Denmark, for example, water authorities routinely publish detailed chemical profiles of local water, including all THM levels, in public databases updated quarterly. In France, where THM issues were discovered in Brittany, local health authorities launched immediate door-to-door awareness campaigns and offered subsidies for household filters. In both cases, transparency and action reduced risk. By contrast, in Ireland, even basic transparency is lacking. Information is often buried in technical documents or behind freedom of information requests. The EPA’s own remedial action list, while important, gives only high-level overviews with limited narrative. No map of affected zones has been made public, and boil water notices continue to be issued without reference to the chemical profile of the water involved. Moreover, the State’s failure to act is