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Secondly, there is the even weirder mindset that anticipates and yearns for the end of the world. I find that off-putting, for a number of reasons I and others have mentioned in this thread. You ask, what is the meaning of life? As best I can tell the meaning of life is to spread life. Wanting the world to end seems completely inimical to that.
There's extremist sects of Christianity that feel they must see this through and make it happen, and it must happen in their lifetime.
There's extremist sects of Christianity that feel they must see this through and make it happen, and it must happen in their lifetime.
I'd have to agree with this. The only time I've truly observed a yearning for the "end of the world" are from various religious groups. Many of them believe that moment represents salvation and eternal life in a heavenly environment. When you think that it's a reward for your good deeds, then of course you'll yearn for it.
I don't think the other, more recent stories/movies that depict global disaster portray a yearning for the "end of the world". In most cases, I think they are trying to bring light to some of the societal pitfalls that we need to be keenly aware of. In Don't Look Up for instance, I considered it as a dark, humorous critique of how the spread of misinformation can be divisive and destructive in terms of both progress and, quite simply, survival as a species. I found that movie to be a similar take on the dumbing down of our society as Mike Judge's Idiocracy. They are clearly meant to be comedic in nature, but dang it if they didn't hit the nail on the head.
I'd have to agree with this. The only time I've truly observed a yearning for the "end of the world" are from various religious groups. Many of them believe that moment represents salvation and eternal life in a heavenly environment. When you think that it's a reward for your good deeds, then of course you'll yearn for it.
I don't think the other, more recent stories/movies that depict global disaster portray a yearning for the "end of the world". In most cases, I think they are trying to bring light to some of the societal pitfalls that we need to be keenly aware of. In Don't Look Up for instance, I considered it as a dark, humorous critique of how the spread of misinformation can be divisive and destructive in terms of both progress and, quite simply, survival as a species. I found that movie to be a similar take on the dumbing down of our society as Mike Judge's Idiocracy. They are clearly meant to be comedic in nature, but dang it if they didn't hit the nail on the head.
Totally agree. Don't Look Up is not really and end-of-the-world pic. The end of the world is just a plot device. It is a satire about how we can't agree on facts or how they are come by, about how everyone feels entitled to have their beliefs and opinions respected, no matter how dangerous or wrong they may be, about how we ignore reality to avoid the slightest personal discomfort, and also about how we pretend to vote and the government pretends to govern.
As for apocalyptic cults generally being religious, I think that's fair, although technically there have been such groups that are not overtly religious. There was a group some years back that was convinced that the world was going to end by a certain day, but that an alien spacecraft was going to rescue the True Believers. Even that, though, you could call quasi-religious; it had all the trappings of religion: occult knowledge available only to the initiated, a group identity mostly apart from society, a narrative of how the Outside World is deceived and you're not, a narrative of doom for which the group's beliefs are your salvation. You could say similar things about Q-Anon and the like.
It begins with the human comprehension of our own mortality. The rest is projection of that to the world and the universe.
The existential catastrophe.
We don't make it.
Ernst Becker wrote on this in The Denial of Death. It's no wonder we are all not sitting cowering in a corner, especially in this world we're living in.
...can you name at least one story you're referring to where human behavior absolutely obliterates the Earth?
Spoiler Alert
Well, in Don't Look Up, the discoverers of the comet that's on a collision course with Earth are just not listened to. If they had been taken seriously early enough, the comet might have been deflected. They finally get to talk to the U.S. President, but it's like their discovery is just not comprehended. It's a parody, of course.
Actually, a 9 km comet would not destroy the earth. My impact calculator says:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth's axis (< 5 hundreths of a degree).
Depending on the direction and location of impact, the collision may cause a change in the length of the day of up to 3.16 milliseconds.
The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.
Of course, it would be a pretty bad collision. Even if you were 500 miles from the impact....
Clothing ignites
Much of the body suffers third degree burns
Deciduous trees ignite
Seismic Effects:
The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 2.68 minutes after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 10.3
The air blast will arrive approximately 40.7 minutes after impact.Max wind velocity: 523 m/s = 1170 mphSound Intensity: 114 dB(May cause ear pain)Damage Description:
Multistory wall-bearing buildings will collapse.
Wood frame buildings will almost completely collapse.
Multistory steel-framed office-type buildings will suffer extreme frame distortion, incipient collapse.
Highway truss bridges will collapse.
Highway girder bridges will collapse.
Glass windows will shatter.
Cars and trucks will be largely displaced and grossly distorted and will require rebuilding before use.
Up to 90 percent of trees blown down; remainder stripped of branches and leaves.
So I'd want to be a lot farther away than 500 miles!
Why is there so much thought put towards the end of the world? There are many ancient religious stories and many modern disaster movies alike that talk about a cataclysm that ends life on earth, and maybe even the universe itself. The most recent entry in this genre is Don't Look Up which is generating a lot of buzz. But really there are so many stories about the end of the world it would be too much to list them.
Why do people fixate on the end of the world so much? What is psychologically gratifying about this topic?
Scientifically we can estimate when the sun will supernova and consume the earth. We can also estimate when the starlight phase of the universe will end, the end of life everywhere. There's a lot that could happen between now and then, which leaves room for some creative storytelling.
I remember an article in Aeon magazine about a theory that western eschatology really became a thing when a certain king decided to not reset the calendar when he assumed power. Before that the calendar would be reset with every new king, so that keeping time would be "in the fourth year of so-and-so's reign". This new king however decided to keep the old calendar, a practice that continued after that king's death. Conceptually this spread the notion of infinite time. However beginnings seemingly always have endings, so people began to dream up stories about the end of time.
That's one theory about when apocalyptic thinking started. There are lots of questions about why apocalyptic thinking is a topic of fascination for so many people.
Because global climate change is the real deal. We have to separate ancient apocalyptic literature from real apocalypse scenarios.
Cars and trucks will be largely displaced and grossly distorted and will require rebuilding before use.
So I'd want to be a lot farther away than 500 miles!
Well this one alone: if the vast majority of buildings and trees have been obliterated by a > 1000 mph blast wave, where exactly would you get your car rebuilt? And with 99.9999% of infrastructure obliterated, how would you pay for it? What job would you return to? Even assuming somehow you personally and the guys at the body shop made it through this?
You'd be reduced to sifting through the rubble for bits of food that hadn't been contaminated or incinerated, just to survive.
I'd guess you'd have to be at least 1500 miles away for there to be any real pieces of civilized existence to pick up, even short-term. And of course this only contemplates the initial effects ... it doesn't speak to the breathability of air anyplace after a short while or the amount of sunlight reaching the earth for decades or centuries after.
I think the movie Greenland was slightly more realistic in this regard; the survivors of that comet impact were in a purpose-built underground bunker way up north, thousands of miles from the main impact site and stayed there for months until the atmosphere stabilized. Of course the main fantasy aspect of that, is that the government would be THAT prepared on short notice.
I almost wish that the existential threat to humanity WAS a killer comet, because we'd have a fighting chance to deal with a clean and unambiguous threat. It's a poor metaphor for climate change, which is a super slow-motion apocalypse, and psychologically, people aren't motivated to deal with something outside their own lifetime. Only now are we starting to see concrete effects in the present day, and those are, for all their awfulness, still happening mostly to Other People. Here in upstate NY, which is considered one of the least-dangerous places in terms of climate change, it is easy to see it as regrettable but no big deal. But we'll have effects here too: droughts, disease plagues along the lines of Lyme Disease due to changes in ecological balance, the collapse of the maple syrup industry, etc.
If the world is destined to get hit by a killer comet the best place to be would be right under it. You'd never feel it. That's the best way to die.
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hale bopp comet
