of course we may blow up our world someday with no outside help at all , for reasons which look every bit as trivial from a standpoint of light-years ; from where we rotate far out on one spoke of the milky way in the lesser magellanic cloud , whether or not the russians invade the iranian oilfields or whether nato decides to install american-made cruise missiles in west germany may seem every bit as important as whose turn it is to pick up the tab for five coffees and a like number of danish .