The best of times
Carl Pope has an interesting piece
If you look far enough into the future you can devalue the worth of not just the human race but of everything (at least by using NPV techniques) to such an extent that the value of humanity, civilization and the environment today is nothing at all… it appears that this could be the basis of behind thinking of some well known politcal advisors…. As we must live in the best of times, lets devalue the worth of everything in the future to zip by acting in such a way as to make it happen exactly that way…with the future worse than now it truly can be said “we do live in the best of times” QED

