![]() She has been accused of alarmism and fearmongering, with a “doomsday” prophecy of climate catastrophe, necessitating changes that will crash the global economy. Judging by the criticism levelled at Greta Thunberg – the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who launched a Skolstrejk för klimatet ( School strike for the climate) in August 2018 – many fear her as the Brothers or Bryan of our times. They seemed to exhibit the same disrespect for established social hierarchies, the same untamed emotions, the same wild eyes, torn clothes and dangerously unkempt appearance. Satirists aligned them with the bloodiest of French revolutionaries. Their critics accused Brothers and Bryan of “enthusiasm”, of falsely believing they were acting under divine inspiration. In the same year, William Bryan – a Bristolian with mellifluous voice and “clear and gentle” eyes – prophesied the overturn of global monarchies, followed a few years later by the “fall” of Bristol, and an earthquake in which London would “burn like an oven”. ![]() ![]() I n 1791, a tall, good-looking ex-naval officer called Richard Brothers claimed to hear the voice of an angel predicting God’s imminent destruction of London. ![]()
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