APOCALYPSE NOW

Apocalypse Now

Apocalyptic themes seem to dominate our popular culture.  I am referring to that body of work that is concerned with the end of civilization due to an existential catastrophe.  Any subject that threatens humankind is fair game for the next movie, summer best seller, video game or television series.   Large meteors hurtling toward earth, nuclear winter, anti matter, alien attacks, virus contagions and invasion by intelligent apes, robots, zombies or vampires have all entered the apocalypse genre in recent years.  But why are we so fascinated with these doomsday scenarios of death and redemption?

 

My view is that because we have no idea how we got here or what our purpose is, our ultimate demise gets all the attention.  It is interesting that all popular apocalypse stories (yes, I am a fan) can be broken into four component parts.  First there is the genesis of the problem, external or manmade; second, zero hour when all hell breaks loose; third, the immediate aftermath/ struggle; and finally redemption with hope for a brave new world.

 

One type of scenario is framed with a socialist worldview.  Formally hostile governments are able to avert disaster by calling on global cooperation.  Decisions are made for the greater good to blow up asteroids or defeat aliens.  The plot ends with global sharing and equality for all.

 

The more likely story line follows an individualistic, libertarian point of view.  Governments and organized science cause the problem.  Our powerful institutions can do nothing right following zero hour.  Urban folk are the first to bite the dust.  The survivalists in the woods become the heroes, living off the land and learning to adapt.  They admire the immediate aftermath with less pollution, more wildlife and little noise.  After the struggle is resolved there are fewer, happier people and no one pays taxes.

 

The truth is that apart from popular fiction, apocalyptic events have profoundly shaped our past and may well determine our future.  Most scientists believe that the impact of an asteroid or comet bombardment 65 million years ago lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the eclipse of mammals.  The last ice age permitted migration of humans out of Asia into North America.  The black plague hastened the end of feudalism in Europe. Of more recent vintage, the Spanish flu epidemic directly lead to advances in the biological sciences.

 

Religion and myth were certainly responsible for the earliest apocalyptic literature.  Many tribal cultures including the formulators of the Old Testament saw calamitous events as the wrath of God “thinning the herd” following unacceptable behavior. Early myths across the populated world chronicled a great flood as purifying the earth so that a better world could follow.  (This ancient thought was sadly still in play after the recent destruction of New Orleans following hurricane Katrina)

 

The Book of Revelation continued the apocalyptic tradition in the New Testament.  The Roman landscape was not a healthy or pleasant place for a Christian in 100 A.D.  Better to hasten the end of the world with a final conflagration between good and evil and move on to a better place.  Over the past 2000 years many self proclaimed prophets have predicted the end of days, only to have the sun come up the next morning.

 

Apocalyptic themes also dominate the environmental sciences in the here and now. The four horsemen of this all too real scenario are climate change, famine, state failure, and migration.  None of these topics are sexy enough to have spawned best sellers, video games or television programs.  They have gained no religious credibility because there is no biblical reference to back them up.

 

These real dangers to mankind are open to dispute and slow to unwind.  Scientific prophets talk in terms of decades if not centuries.  Popular apocalypse themes require instant gratification, with a billion casualties in the first episode.  Moreover, the nearly impossible always trumps the highly plausible in both religious and entertainment circles.

 

In the end (no pun intended) we all want to believe that mankind can survive whatever the elements or the bestselling authors or the politicians can throw at us.  Personally, I would feel safer if more attention were focused on what the scientific prophets are telling us.  They may not have a blockbuster movie or the bible to back them up (Al Gore doesn’t count), but there was some awful strange weather this summer and the polar bears look a little thin.

 

The adaptability of the human race should prevail so long as environmental science and common sense are permitted to determine our future. Unless that is, the newest and largest particle accelerator creates a black hole and snuffs us out in a millisecond and the story starts over ….”In the beginning”.