Merge branch 'main' of https://git.joeac.net/joeac/msc-dissertation-aug-2026

6 files changed, 278 insertions, 210 deletions

diff --git a/bibliography.bib b/bibliography.bib
index 48381d3..1bc7c3a 100644
--- a/bibliography.bib
+++ b/bibliography.bib
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+@book{unveiling-empire,
+    author={Howard-Brooke, Wes and Gwyther, Anthony},
+    title={Unveiling Empire},
+    subtitle={Reading Revelation Then and Now},
+    date={1999},
+    publisher={Orbis Books},
+    address={Maryknoll},
+}
+
 @inbook{bowman-2010,
     author={Bowman, Andrew},
     title={Are We Armed Only with Peer-Reviewed Science?},
diff --git a/books.txt b/books.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b1d97c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/books.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+o'reilly
+--------
+
+Making Embedded Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Software/dp/1098151542?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
+Practical Electronics: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Components-Techniques-Hughes/dp/1449373070?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
+TCP/IP Network Administration: https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Network-Administration-OReilly-Networking/dp/0596002971/ref=zg_bs_g_3780_d_sccl_7/137-3703722-1640927?psc=1
+Designing Embedded Hardware: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596007558/ref=mes-dp?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=5rJPr&content-id=amzn1.sym.f45dea16-f25a-4516-b170-6b4033444233&pf_rd_p=f45dea16-f25a-4516-b170-6b4033444233&pf_rd_r=0Z5Z68D4TZAAFTV6JRPH&pd_rd_wg=eJ6Tz&pd_rd_r=3c25024d-7792-4f3a-a9b4-241c62936017
+Linux Pocket Guide: https://www.amazon.com/Linux-Pocket-Guide-Essential-Commands-ebook/dp/B0CWX5XFQT?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
+Free As In Freedom: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Freedom-Paperback-Stallmans-Software-ebook/dp/B006GCNP5S?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
+Raspberry Pi Cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-Cookbook-Simon-Monk-ebook/dp/B0BPK31VRD?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
+Arduino Cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Cookbook-Recipes-Enhance-Projects-ebook/dp/B0877CDYGV?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
+
+
+packt
+-----
+
+Bare-Metal Embedded C Programming: https://www.amazon.com/dp/183546081X/ref=mes-dp?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=rmxKX&content-id=amzn1.sym.f45dea16-f25a-4516-b170-6b4033444233&pf_rd_p=f45dea16-f25a-4516-b170-6b4033444233&pf_rd_r=FJQTC4VP3XTC1ZJXY2VZ&pd_rd_wg=OAfVR&pd_rd_r=7d8b53e9-e89d-4f5a-b682-d3b9c0e34508
+Mastering Linux Device Driver Development: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/mastering-linux-device-driver-development-9781789342048
+Building Smart Home Automation Projects with Home Assistant: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/building-smart-home-automation-solutions-with-home-assistant-9781801817257#tocBlock
+Linux Kernel Programming: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/linux-kernel-programming-9781803241081
+Learn Ansible: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/learn-ansible-9781835082171
+Mastering Embedded Linux Development: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/mastering-embedded-linux-development-9781803241463
+Mastering Linux Administration: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/mastering-linux-administration-9781837630837
+Embedded Systems Architecture: https://www.packtpub.com/en-gb/product/embedded-systems-architecture-9781803242057
+
+other
+-----
+
+Make: Electronics: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-hands-electronics-enthusiast/dp/1680456873/ref=pd_sbs_d_sccl_1_4/137-3703722-1640927?pd_rd_w=fWVjh&content-id=amzn1.sym.aa738fbd-ad05-4d11-aae2-04b598db6305&pf_rd_p=aa738fbd-ad05-4d11-aae2-04b598db6305&pf_rd_r=0ZPWHN74KANDT3M46KQQ&pd_rd_wg=P4cUb&pd_rd_r=3254a80c-bc2e-494e-8700-afc8e247f626&pd_rd_i=1680456873&psc=1
+Open Circuits: https://www.amazon.com/Open-Circuits-Beauty-Electronic-Components/dp/1718502346/ref=pd_sbs_d_sccl_1_3/137-3703722-1640927?pd_rd_w=fWVjh&content-id=amzn1.sym.aa738fbd-ad05-4d11-aae2-04b598db6305&pf_rd_p=aa738fbd-ad05-4d11-aae2-04b598db6305&pf_rd_r=0ZPWHN74KANDT3M46KQQ&pd_rd_wg=P4cUb&pd_rd_r=3254a80c-bc2e-494e-8700-afc8e247f626&pd_rd_i=1718502346&psc=1
+The Irrational Decision: https://www.amazon.com/Irrational-Decision-Computers-Power-Choose/dp/0691272441/ref=zg_bs_g_10806606011_d_sccl_97/137-3703722-1640927?psc=1
diff --git a/chapter1.md b/chapter1.md
index 29a5919..06c2e0d 100644
--- a/chapter1.md
+++ b/chapter1.md
@@ -390,9 +390,18 @@ powers and interests for such exhortations to be feasible.
 This begs the question: if green rhetoric is failing, how might it be fixed? In
 what follows, I will not be proposing a practical manifesto for transforming the
 green movement, but I will be engaging in blue-sky thinking, imagining what a
-more successful green rhetoric might look like. In the next chapter, I will
-examine the popular suggestion that a more successful green rhetoric would look
-less apocalyptic.
+more successful green rhetoric might look like.
+
+One common suggestion is that green rhetoric needs to be less catastrophic. Since
+apocalyptic language is often assumed to be more or less equivalent to catastrophic
+language, it is easy for commentators such as Frances Flannery to infer that
+successful green rhetoric should avoid apocalyptic language. In chapter 3, I'll
+argue that Flannery's argument ignores the possibilities of apocalyptic language,
+including, and going well beyond, its catastrophic aspects. Then, in chapter 4,
+I'll argue that green rhetors today must use John's rhetorical techniques in order
+to make change happen. But first, in the following chapter, I'll explore how
+catastrophism appears in contemporary green rhetoric, and why critics allege that
+catastrophic language is counter-productive in this context.
 
 ## TODO
 
diff --git a/chapter2.md b/chapter2.md
index 35b65f6..8c4c67b 100644
--- a/chapter2.md
+++ b/chapter2.md
@@ -1,8 +1,17 @@
 ## Chapter 2
 
-Catastrophe is a prominent literary feature of contemporary green rhetoric. The
-word 'catastrophe' first entered English through early modern translations of
-Greek plays, meaning the denouement of a plot. Through association with
+Among the numerous complaints commentators have expressed about catastrophic
+green rhetoric, I will examine three in particular. One, it is alleged that
+catastrophic language encourages a fatalistic outlook and therefore
+discourages effective political action. Second, catastrophe is supposed to
+promote business as usual and shut down radical discourses. Third, critics
+argue that catastrophic thinking flattens out power relationships and thus
+contributes to the 'death of politics.' I will examine each of these
+complaints in turn, but first I will explore where catastrophic language comes
+from and how it ends up featuring in contemporary green rhetoric.
+
+The word 'catastrophe' first entered English through early modern translations
+of Greek plays, meaning the denouement of a plot. Through association with
 tragedies, it came to acquire connotations of disaster, and in the nineteenth
 century, became closely associated with the (now antiquated) 'catastrophic'
 theory of geological time, according to which distinct geological epochs were
@@ -52,8 +61,23 @@ facing with courage her grief and her own inevitable death. Even a talented
 writer such as Foster, intentionally seeking to break new imaginative ground for
 conceptualising green crises, seems unable to escape the motif of catastrophe.
 
-Recently, academics examining green rhetoric have raised concerns with this
-catastrophism.
+The word 'apocalypse' is sometimes used as if to stand for 'catastrophe.'
+Of course, the Apocalypse of St John has a great deal in common with the concept
+of a geological catastrophe. Cosmos-scale world-changing events destroy much of
+the existing world order and its life-sustaining powers: the heavens are
+rolled up like a scroll, the sun and moon are darkened, water turns to blood,
+fire rains down from above. In its place, a new world order is established,
+which enables different forms of life. Al Gore, in his influential global
+warming campaign film, _An Inconvenient Truth_, was (and remains) typical in the
+way he describes the consequences of certain floods and wildfires as 'like a
+nature hike through the Book of Revelations' [@inconvenient-truth]. In the next
+chapter, I will argue that reducing apocalypse to mere catastrophe misses out
+important features of apocalyptic language as exemplified by St John, but for
+now it is worth noting that some rhetors use allusions to the Apocalypse in order
+to function as a catastrophic symbol.
+
+Recently, academics examining green rhetoric have raised concerns with green
+catastrophism. The first issue I will examine here is fatalism.
 
 It has been claimed green catastrophism is fatalistic: that the catastrophe is
 implicitly inevitable, thus encouraging despair over hope and therefore mere
@@ -69,37 +93,70 @@ Paleontologists speculate about the causes of historic mass extinctions:
 volcanic eruptions, asteroid strikes, cyclical climate fluctuations gone rogue?
 One thing's for sure, there's nothing the dinosaurs could have done to stop it.
 
-A fatalistic outlook may, at best, lead to what Kvandal & Levy call
-'ritualistic' behaviours: 'behaviours characterized by rigidity, compulsion, and
-goal demotion.' [@kvandal-2025] That is, people feel compelled to act in rigidly
-specific ways, even though they don't have a clear grasp on the practical
-outcomes of their behaviour. Calling on the cognitive science of religion, the
-authors assert that 'there is a general consensus that human beings tend to
-ritualize more of their behavior when they lose agency under conditions of
-stress, uncertainty, or hazards more generally.' They note the example of Greta
-Thunberg sailing across the Atlantic in a zero-carbon vessel to speak at the
-United Nations. The huge effort involved in that act seems disproportionate to
-the small impact had on greenhouse gas emissions. The authors also raise
-examples of civil disobedience motivated by climate pessimism. Fatalism might
-lead to politically productive behaviours. But the fact that ritualistic
-behaviours are severed from practical outcomes makes it a pretty bad bet:
+Some apocalyptic movements and worldviews have also promoted fatalisms. One
+notable contemporary movement is the modern pre-millenialist movement in the
+USA. Pre-millenialists believe in the 'Rapture,' based on an interpretation of
+Thess 4:17: 'then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
+with \[the dead in Christ\] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.'
+
+While pre-millenialists have traditionally been notable for rejecting the
+apocalyptic vision of the USA as the New Jerusalem of Rev 21, and therefore
+been at times able to point out distortions and injustices belonging to
+mainstream American patriotic ideology [@unveiling-empire, pp. 3-15], the
+pre-millenialist outlook is inescapably fatalist. As a result, when the 'social
+gospel' movement took off in the late nineteenth century, some
+pre-millenialists condemned the movement for failing to trust God's plan to
+redeem the world in the end-times and trying to redeem the world by inferior
+and vain human efforts instead [@unveiling-empire, p. 10]. Wes Howard-Brooke
+and Anthony Gwyther have observed this contradictory situation:
+
+> \[…\] in the 1950s-1970s, pre-millenialists were also taking frequent aim at what
+> they saw as other U.S. cultural signs of the approaching End. Among their
+> targets were television \[…\], consumerism, advancing technology, changes in
+> gender roles in the family and workplace, the advent of the New Age movement,
+> rock and roll, and homosexuality. One thing was certainly true about
+> premillenialists: they were willing to look American culture in the eye and
+> not flinch. Of course, they had no desire to repair the damage or heal the
+> wounds; such malignant forces were simply further evidence that the Second
+> Coming was getting closer and closer, and hence, the Rapture of the true
+> believers. [@unveiling-empire, p. 14]
+
+In the case of the green movement, a fatalistic outlook may, at best, lead to
+what Kvandal & Levy call 'ritualistic' behaviours: 'behaviours characterized by
+rigidity, compulsion, and goal demotion.' [@kvandal-2025] While this may not
+serve as an adequate account of ritual behaviours in general, the authors'
+point is this: green activists who hold a fatalistic outlook feel compelled to
+act in rigidly specific ways, even though they don't have a clear grasp on the
+practical outcomes of their behaviour.
+
+Calling on the cognitive science of religion, the authors assert that 'there is
+a general consensus that human beings tend to ritualize more of their behavior
+when they lose agency under conditions of stress, uncertainty, or hazards more
+generally.' They note the example of Greta Thunberg sailing across the Atlantic
+in a zero-carbon vessel to speak at the United Nations. The huge effort
+involved in that act seems disproportionate to the small impact had on
+greenhouse gas emissions. The authors also raise examples of civil disobedience
+motivated by climate pessimism. Fatalism might lead to politically productive
+behaviours. But the fact that ritualistic behaviours are severed from practical
+outcomes makes it a pretty bad bet:
 
 > By not allowing for hope that the world can be salvaged, this form of social
 > activism provides outlets in which activists alleviate anxiety by obtaining a
 > (simulated) sense of agency in the face of an uncontrollable threat.
 > [@kvandal-2025, p. 701]
 
-Action directed at making you feel better might lead to change in your own life,
-but it is not necessarily going to solve the problem that made you feel anxious
-in the first place. Juli Gittinger has shown that fatalistic climate narratives
-have driven some people in the US to join the 'prepper' movement, accumulating
-stockpiles of essential goods, building emergency shelters, learning 'survival
-skills,' and collecting weapons to defend your family's patch from desperate
-outsiders. [@american-apocalyptic, see esp. chp. 3, 4] 'Prepper' culture (which
-owes its existence to Cold War fears of all-out nuclear war
-[@american-apocalyptic, pp. 48-56]) might be a minority pursuit, but it is a
-response to the same apocalyptic storytelling which is a widespread phenomenon
-in mainstream American media:
+Action directed at making you feel better might lead to change in your own
+life, but it is not necessarily going to solve the problem that made you feel
+anxious in the first place. Juli Gittinger has shown that fatalistic climate
+narratives have driven some people in the US to join the 'prepper' movement,
+accumulating stockpiles of essential goods, building emergency shelters,
+learning 'survival skills,' and collecting weapons to defend your family's
+patch from desperate outsiders. [@american-apocalyptic, see esp. chp. 3, 4]
+'Prepper' culture (which owes its existence to Cold War fears of all-out
+nuclear war [@american-apocalyptic, pp. 48-56] and is sometimes also pursued as
+a result of certain pre-millenialist beliefs [@unveiling-empire, p. 5]) might
+be a minority pursuit, but it is a response to the same apocalyptic
+storytelling which is a widespread phenomenon in mainstream American media:
 
 > The theme of _impending catastrophe_ \[…\] frames the news story
 > as more apocalyptic and therefore often becomes more sensationalized or highly
@@ -126,12 +183,19 @@ rhetoric as 'doom-mongering.' Closely related is the discourse of 'British comic
 nihilism,' or, as they put it, the discourse of 'bugger it and open another
 bottle!'
 
-Green catastrophism may have political implications, too. It has been argued
-that implicit in the catastrophist narrative is the assumption that everything
-was going well until the catastrophe loomed its ugly head. This suggests that
-'business as usual' is alright, and therefore obscures the need for a radical
-critique of the business-as-usual political get-up which produces massive
-destruction.
+So, because catastrophic language tends to encourage a fatalist outlook, it
+fails when it convinces -- since 'why bother trying when we're all stuffed
+anyway?' -- and it fails when it doesn't -- since 'why pay attention to such
+excitable nonsense?'
+
+A second problem with catastrophic language is that it is conservative. Often,
+catastrophist narratives tacitly assume that everything was going well until
+The Catastrophe loomed its ugly head. This suggests that 'business as usual' is
+alright, and that a solution to the problem, by definition, means a return to
+normal. But if, as many political analysts contend, green harms are in fact an
+inevitable consequence of business as usual, such narratives then obstruct the
+radical political critique which will be necessary for a lasting solution to
+green issues.
 
 Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac provided one demonstration of this
 mindset in _The Future We Choose_, which begins with an imaginative description
@@ -166,56 +230,21 @@ Eileen Crist, discussing Anthropocene discourse, puts it:
 > still contestable, partially reversible, and worthy of resistance and of
 > inspiring a different vision. [@poverty-nomenclature, p. 25]
 
-It gets worse for the catastrophist. Perhaps the most vicious criticism of green
-catastrophism is that by leaning on 'Anthropocene' discourses, green rhetors
-flatten out social relationships. This, say the critics, is the death of all
-genuine politics. \[EXAMPLES\]
-
-For Frances Flannery, Professor Emerita of Religion at James Madison University,
-the upshot of all this is that 'We Must Stop Saying "Climate Apocalypse"'
-[@flannery-2024].
-
-Flannery emphasises that in popular imagination, 'apocalypse' signifies nothing
-more than the end of the world, ignoring the world-creating aspects of biblical
-apocalypses [@flannery-2024, p. 209]. This may be a legacy of Cold-War era
-nuclear rhetoric and science fiction, which re-purposed the symbol 'apocalypse'
-to describe the consequences of a nuclear war, while deliberately stripping the
-disaster of any redemptive afterward [@wojcik-end-of-the-world, p. 1]. Thus, she
-argues, the result of raising the threat of a 'climate apocalypse' is to 'create
-passivity rather than spur on quick and cooperative climate action' and to inspire
-mass climate anxiety. Such a fatalist narrative can also imply that human action
-is irrelevant, or encourage audiences to put their hope in 'savior figures such
-as inventors, scientists, or governments who might rescue humanity in the nick
-of time.' [@flannery-2024, p. 210]
-
-Flannery also adds a couple further reasons why apocalypse in particular, apart
-from its connotations of catastrophe, might be an unhelpful symbol to apply to
-climate change. For one, if millenialist Christians, who are politically
-influential in places such as the United States and the Congo which are
-significant for the global climate, are persuaded that climate change is a 'sign
-of the times,' there's a risk that they will welcome climate change instead of
-fighting it.
-
-For another, she notes that in the Apocalypse of St John, the wicked are
-punished and the righteous vindicated. Meanwhile, in the climate case, it is
-people living in the Global South who are expected to suffer the most from
-climate change. Thus, telling a narrative of 'climate apocalypse' from the
-Global North suggests that people living in the Global North are the suffering
-righteous who will be vindicated, and those in the Global South the wicked who
-will be punished. But, in Flannery's view, this flips the script on the
-historical facts, which show that climate change is if anything a result of the
-'wickedness' of those living in the Global North.
-
-We are now beginning to expose five major criticisms of the use of apocalyptic
-language in green rhetoric:
-
-1. Apocalyptic language is catastrophic and thus fatalistic.
-2. Apocalyptic language is catastrophic and thus obstructs radical criticism of
-   business as usual.
-3. Apocalyptic language is catastrophic and thus flattens out power
-   relationships.
-4. Apocalyptic language is millenarian and thus promotes destruction.
-5. Apocalyptic language is violent and vindictive.
+So catastrophic language, apart from its fatalist tendencies, can shut down
+radical political discourses and thus discredit the best solutions to green
+problems before they've even been proposed. But perhaps the most vicious
+criticism of green catastrophism is that since green catastrophism reverberates
+strongly with 'Anthropocene' discourses, such rhetoric flattens out power
+relationships. This, say the critics, is the death of all genuine politics.
+
+\[EXAMPLES\]
+
+In sum, green catastrophism is accused of encouraging a fatalist outlook,
+disarming radical discourses in favour of business as usual, and deeping harmful
+'post-politics' discourses by obscuring the importance of power relationships.
+In all these ways, catastrophic language in green rhetoric can work to actively
+de-motivate audiences to play their part in bringing about the green movement's
+desired outcomes.
 
 ## TODO
 
diff --git a/chapter3.md b/chapter3.md
index 094f854..850632a 100644
--- a/chapter3.md
+++ b/chapter3.md
@@ -1,22 +1,63 @@
 ## Chapter 3
 
-In this chapter, I will aim to show that these criticisms would, if they were
-applied to the Apocalypse of St John as it was addressed to its original
-audience, fail to reflect the radical possibilities of that work. Then, in
-chapter 4, I will aim to show that green rhetors even now must make use of those
-radical possibilities of apocalyptic language in order to be politically
-effective, and suggest some ways how they might do that.
-
-The first thing to notice is that, while the first three criticisms enumerated
-above all assume that apocalyptic language is catastrophic, the Apocalypse
-itself is not catastrophic. For St John, there is no impending catastrophe. The
-tribulations have already begun, and are largely in the hands of cosmic forces
-far bigger than his audience. The exhortation is not to avert the bad thing, but
-to endure it.
-
-Rev 2-3 opens John's vision with Jesus' address to seven churches in Asia.
-He exhorts them all to be faithful. For example, to the church in Ephesus, he
-implores:
+In the previous chapter, I explored how contemporary green rhetors use
+catastrophic language, and three reasons why some commentators believe
+that this is counter-productive. Given the close relationship between
+catastrophe and apocalypse in the imaginations of many people in the West, this
+begs the question of whether green rhetors ought also to avoid apocalyptic
+language. Frances Flannery, Professor Emerita of Religion at James Madison
+University, has argued just this.
+
+Flannery emphasises that in popular imagination, 'apocalypse' signifies nothing
+more than the end of the world, ignoring the world-creating aspects of biblical
+apocalypses [@flannery-2024, p. 209]. This may be a legacy of Cold-War era
+nuclear rhetoric and science fiction, which re-purposed the symbol 'apocalypse'
+to describe the consequences of a nuclear war, while deliberately stripping the
+disaster of any redemptive afterward [@wojcik-end-of-the-world, p. 1]. Thus, she
+argues, the result of raising the threat of a 'climate apocalypse' is to 'create
+passivity rather than spur on quick and cooperative climate action' and to inspire
+mass climate anxiety. Such a fatalist narrative can also imply that human action
+is irrelevant, or encourage audiences to put their hope in 'savior figures such
+as inventors, scientists, or governments who might rescue humanity in the nick
+of time.' [@flannery-2024, p. 210]
+
+Flannery's critique would imply that green rhetors ought to avoid apocalyptic
+language. This conclusion rests on two key premises: one, that apocalyptic
+language is catastrophic in the same way which leads to fatalism, conservatism
+and post-politics as described in the previous chapter; and two, that
+catastrophe is the dominant effective symbol associated with apocalyptic
+language.
+
+In what remains of this chapter, I will argue that were these criticisms to be
+levelled against the model of apocalyptic language in the West,
+namely, the Apocalypse of St John, the Apocalypse would resist the force of
+these criticisms. Reading from the perspective of John's original audiences,
+the Apocalypse does not promote fatalism, conservatism or post-politics, but
+works against these responses. Later in the chapter, I'll explore three
+further key apocalyptic features of the Apocalypse which John uses towards
+his rhetorical ends, demonstrating how apocalyptic rhetoric may have worked
+effectively in probably the most influential representative of the genre.
+Then, in chapter 4, I'll extend this argument to the case of contemporary
+green rhetoric, and show how these features of John's ancient rhetoric could
+be reproduced effectively in a contemporary context.
+
+So, what of the criticisms enumerated in the previous chapter, namely, that
+catastrophic language promotes fatalism, conservatism and post-politics? The
+first thing to observe here is that, whereas green rhetors typically position
+the catastrophe as an impending event over which the audience has some measure
+of control, St John, in contrast, discusses tribulations which have already
+begun, and are largely in the hands of cosmic forces far bigger than his
+audience. While John's tribulation discourse surely is catastrophic in some
+respects -- involving a definite period in time where cosmic-scale destruction
+renders former ways of life permanently unsustainable -- his exhortation is not
+to avert the catastrophe, but to endure it. As a result of this very different
+dialectic, John's catastrophism can be against fatalism and promote radical
+politics grounded in an analysis of power relations.
+
+John's alternative catastrophic dialectic is visible from the opening chapters
+of the Apocalypse, which makes explicit John's exhortation to endure. Rev 2-3
+opens John's vision with Jesus' address to seven churches in Asia. He exhorts
+them all to be faithful. For example, to the church in Ephesus, he implores:
 
 > I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not
 > bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are
@@ -67,11 +108,15 @@ rich Christian might have had doing business unless they participated fully in
 the imperial cult \[CITE\].
 
 From this, it seems that the visions John relates are not, or at least not
-merely, about an impending catastrophe, but about events which are already
-unfolding. John's mythological language, among other things, may have functioned
-to situate the local, present contexts of John's audiences within a larger
-cosmic context, covering the whole of both space and time. Thus, as Ben
-Witherington III puts it:
+merely, about an impending catastrophe which he wants his audience to work to
+avoid, but about a catastrophe -- perhaps, as \[SCHOLAR\] suggests, a
+catastrophe only visible as a catastrophe from John's apocalyptic perspective
+-- which is already unfolding, which he wants his audience to endure. Given
+this rhetorical drive, John's mythological language, among other things, may
+have functioned to situate the local, present contexts of John's audiences
+within a larger cosmic context, covering the whole of both space and time,
+helping to motivate his audience to participate in John's self-sacrificial
+ethic. Thus, as Ben Witherington III puts it:
 
 > This material is not _just_ about the future, nor should we have expected it
 > to be since it is narrative forensic rhetoric meant to prepare and exhort
@@ -99,9 +144,17 @@ evil requires a radical subversion of actual power relationships, and John
 conceives of just such a subversion, and calls his audience to participate in
 that event.
 
-Andrew Chester [@chaos-new-creation] has explored this idea in detail, noting,
-for example, that in Rev 6:12-17, God's life-sustaining creative acts of Gen 1
-are threatened with total annihilation:
+St John's rhetoric therefore is against fatalism: he motivates and calls his
+audience to political action. It is against conservatism: he asks his audience
+to subvert dominant power structures and build a radical alternative society
+and value system. It is ardently political: his rhetoric is rooted in a
+analysis of power structures within Greek society, and particularly between the
+rich and poor among Asian Christian churches.
+
+Andrew Chester [@chaos-new-creation] has explored John's radical subversion of
+the dominant Greek value-system in detail, beginning with the observation that
+in Rev 6:12-17, God's life-sustaining creative acts of Gen 1 are threatened
+with total annihilation:
 
 > And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
 > earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became
@@ -147,60 +200,18 @@ power, they tragically bring death and destruction on themselves and the world.
 > powerful, now hover on the edge of losing completely what distinguishes
 > them – the great lights and source of all life. [@chaos-new-creation, p. 346]
 
-Fatalistic? Conservative? Far from it. The destructive events of John's vision
-are the result of human powers distorting God's creation for their own ends. We
-can be complicit and accept the mark of the beast, or we can resist. Those who
-resist will conquer, but not in the way of God's enemies, who raise up armies to
-fight battles: the saints will conquer through the blood of the Lamb, and win
-pride of place in God's new creation, while the nations of the earth flood in to
-worship and to receive life and healing. 'It is an ethic for martyrdom,' as John
-J. Collins, a leading scholar on biblical apocalyptic, puts it
-[@apocalyptic-imagination, chp. 9].
-
-What about the accusations that apocalyptic language is destructive, violent,
-and vindictive? From the above discussion, it should hopefully be clear that
-although John's visions are certainly extremely violent, it is not the case that
-John encourages wanton destruction and violence. It is the evil, idolatrous
-powers of the world which have disfigured God's good creation, and so long as
-they refuse to repent of their destruction and violence, they justly bring
-destruction and violence upon themselves.
-
-Many critics insist that it is impossible to apologise for the violence of
-John's Apocalypse. Lorenzo DiTommaso argues that 'apocalypticism is an unhealthy
-worldview, particularly in its biblical form. It is inimical to a mature vision
-of human destiny, or any social order founded on humanistic ideals. It is
-hostile to life on Earth, especially in light of the nature and needs of
-contemporary society' [@apocalyptic-other, p. 236; quoted in
-@apocalyptic-imagination, Epilogue]. David Frankfurter dismisses attempts to
-apologise for the violence of John's Apocalypse as 'canonical special pleading
-for a very problematic text' [@sectarian-rage; quoted in
-@apocalyptic-imagination, Epilogue]. In his review of scholarship on violence in
-the Apocalypse, David Barr admits that 'the Apocalypse shows little concern
-about employing images that are both violent and ethically offensive,' which is
-'especially problematic in a time when many Christians and Muslims regard each
-other as wholly evil, and violent apocalyptic groups have emerged in both
-traditions' [@violence-in-apocalypse].
-
-On the other hand, it is important to read the violence of John's vision in
-the context of the author's social location. As Alan Breck puts it in _Kidnapped_:
-
-> 'Opinion here or opinion there,' said I, 'it's a kennt thing that Christianity
-> forbids revenge.'
->
-> 'Ay,' said he, 'it's well seen it was a Campbell taught ye! It would be a
-> convenient world for them and their sort, if there was no such a thing as a
-> lad and a gun behind a heather bush!' [@kidnapped, chp. 12]
-
-John wrote from the perspective of the poor and oppressed \[QUOTE FIORENZA\],
-exhorting them not to vindictive violence but to resist violent powers and trust
-God to deliver justice. So, while apocalypticism can be used to inspire
-violence, it can also be used, as John uses it, to inspire resistance to
-oppressive regimes.
-
-\[EXAMPLES OF APOCALYPTICISM IN RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS\]
-
-So if John's Apocalypse is not catastrophic, and cannot be reduced to the
-violence and destruction which it features, how does John use apocalyptic
+Fatalistic? Conservative? Post-political? Far from it. The destructive events
+of John's vision are the result of human powers distorting God's creation for
+their own ends. We can be complicit and accept the mark of the beast, or we can
+resist. Those who resist will conquer, but not in the way of God's enemies, who
+raise up armies to fight battles: the saints will conquer through the blood of
+the Lamb, and win pride of place in God's new creation, while the nations of
+the earth flood in to worship and to receive life and healing. 'It is an ethic
+for martyrdom,' as John J. Collins, a leading scholar on biblical apocalyptic,
+puts it [@apocalyptic-imagination, chp. 9].
+
+So if the catastrophism of John's Apocalypse works not for, but against
+fatalism, conservatism, and post-politics, how else does John use apocalyptic
 language to achieve his rhetorical goals? I will focus on three key features:
 revealed knowledge, tribulations, and the end times, as well as the use of
 mythological language throughout each of these.
@@ -222,9 +233,12 @@ intermediary, and is thus regarded by scholars as a marker of the genre,
 
 Why might John have used this genre? While it is perfectly plausible that John
 had a genuine visionary experience [@visions-in-apocalyptic-handbook, pp.
-115-116], this would still not explain why he chose to publish an account of his
-experience using the apocalyptic genre. One reason may be that John inhabited,
-as Leonard Thompson described it, a 'cognitive minority' [@thompson-revelation].
+115-116], this would still not explain why he chose to publish an account of
+his experience using the apocalyptic genre. If a typical Western middle-class
+person were to have a visionary experience today, they might choose to find a
+more scientifically respectable framing before sharing their insights with
+others. One reason that John used the apocalyptic genre may be that John
+inhabited, as Leonard Thompson described it, a 'cognitive minority' [@thompson-revelation].
 
 Early Christian communities led distinctive lives on the basis of exclusive
 sources of knowledge: apostolic authority, prophecy, eyewitness testimony,
@@ -295,41 +309,14 @@ what it is they are suffering for, and thus encourages them to endure their
 tribulations.
 
 In summary, the apocalyptic form is crucial to the rhetorical force of John's
-Apocalypse. By adopting the form of an apocalyptic prophecy, he defends his
-cognitive minority community from the overwhelming weight of the cognitive
-majority which surrounds them. Through exploring the symbol of tribulations,
-John steels his audience for suffering, and reassures those who are already
-suffering that their troubles are part of a cosmic context. And with his
-treatment of the end times, John inspires his audience with hope that their
-sufferings will not be wasted.
-
-\[TODO: see if next three paras are relevant.\]
-
-John's apocalyptic imagination uses mythological language to reveal the world of
-appearances for what it really is. The ideology of Empire is a pretender God,
-and the suffering of the martyrs is in fact God's way of conquering evil. John
-may have created a crisis for a people that didn't see one, a people that needed
-'waking up'. So, while catastrophism imagines that all humanity approaches the
-catastrophe more or less from the same perspective, and thus works to kill
-politics, John's apocalyptic imagination imagines precisely the opposite: he
-enlivens political criticism and active resistance to dominant structures by
-identifying how people relate unequally to them.
-
-So people today, when they equate apocalypticism with catastrophism, are cutting
-out most of the apocalyptic imagination and distorting its message. This is now
-new. This is a very traditional move which functions to shut down radical
-dissent against dominant structures.
-
-Meanwhile, those who have read the Apocalypse 'from below' tend to emphasise how
-it has a visionary interpretation of the tribulations of this world, and a
-visionary expectation of this world being transformed, and use this vision to
-motivate movements for transformational social change.
-
-The apocalyptic form is therefore not the reason that green rhetoric is failing.
-As explored in chapter 1, green rhetoric is failing because it is failing to
-diagnose the root causes of the problem, present a credible route to a credible
-solution, and address an audience that could be persuaded to make a difference.
-Were rhetors to solve these problems, they could use apocalyptic effectively.
+Apocalypse. The catastrophic aspects of his vision work against, not for,
+fatalism, conservatism, and post-politics. By adopting the form of an
+apocalyptic prophecy, he defends his cognitive minority community from the
+overwhelming weight of the cognitive majority which surrounds them. Through
+exploring the symbol of tribulations, John steels his audience for suffering,
+and reassures those who are already suffering that their troubles are part of a
+cosmic context. And with his treatment of the end times, John inspires his
+audience with hope that their sufferings will not be wasted.
 
 ## TODO
 
diff --git a/chapter4.md b/chapter4.md
index 8fb1efa..d6c0431 100644
--- a/chapter4.md
+++ b/chapter4.md
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 ## Chapter 4
 
 In the previous three chapters, I've explored how and why contemporary green
-rhetoric is too often failing, and argued that the apocalyptic form is not one
-of the root causes. In this chapter, I aim to show that in order for green
-rhetoric to succeed, it must imitate some of the rhetorical strategies of the
-Apocalypse.
+rhetoric is too often failing, and discussed the particular criticism of the use
+of catastrophic language. In the previous chapter, I argued that these
+criticisms of catastrophic language do not apply to the use of apocalyptic
+language in the most important model of apocalyptic rhetoric in Western
+literature, namely, the Apocalypse of St John.  Now, in this chapter, I aim to
+show that in order for green rhetoric to succeed, it should imitate the
+apocalyptic rhetorical strategies of the Apocalypse discussed in the previous chapter.
 
 In order to consider how green rhetoric might succeed, I have to specify: what
 is the rhetor trying to achieve? How are they hoping that it will be achieved?