We humans have lived in the shadow of the Apocalypse, which was meant to have engulfed us since Biblical times. Doomsday has always been just around the corner. Wherever there was a religion, there was strand of thought within associated with end-time scenarios. The study of these is known as eschatology (from the Ancient Greek term ἔσχατος [éschatos], 'last', and -logy, 'the study of'), the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
I remember as a ten-year old being terrified after reading a leaflet from the Jehovah's Witnesses which stated that a great famine, similar to that being shown on our TV news every night in Biafra, would sweep the earth and that we will all die. More realistically, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Exercise Able Archer 83 were mankind's two closest brushes with global nuclear Armageddon.
The Cold War passed; the End of History was announced. It was not to be. The destruction of the Twin Towers ushered in a new era of religion-inspired bloodshed, as soon as that was being brought under control, Putin kicks it off in Ukraine, a deadly virus sweeps the planet and then Putin invades Ukraine on the full scale. Worries (so far misplaced) about Europe freezing as Africa starves came to nought - things are never as bad as they initially seem. Will inflation wipe out our savings? Will AI take our jobs?
We are worried about more end-of-time events than ever before; Russia, China and North Korea run by nuclear-armed despots; new viral, bacterial or fungal diseases resulting from mutations, bio-lab leaks or global warming; cosmic disasters (asteroid strike, solar coronal mass ejection), super-volcano explosions, mega-earthquakes and tsunamis, and social turmoil caused by the effects of artificial intelligence. Or a combination of some or all of the above. A great tribulation, a complete unravelling of the social fabric, an societal breakdown. Survived only by those fleetest of foot and mightiest of fist. We are all going to die - and soon.
Much of this is predicted in the social media, which sucks us in then bombards us with a relentless diet of woe. Doomscrolling Twitter is such a waste of time, and so depressing. (Blimey! Just caught myself doing exactly that right now! Stop!) The 24-hour news cycle is predicated on the algorithm that good news is no news, and that bad news travels fast. Pile on the bad news (economy) on top of bad news (more Russian barbarism) on top of bad news (climate change) and soon you can readily accept the doom-mongers' claims that we are living in the worst of times and the end of days.
One answer to the Fermi Paradox is that civilisations do not get beyond their Great Filter - they invariably wipe themselves out in thermonuclear war or with climate change or some other self-made apocalypse. [An interesting digression here: should we do this, descendants of the survivors will never be able to re-create the Industrial Revolution because the fossil-fuels laid down during the Carboniferous Era have been largely used up over the past 250 years or so.]
I, however, am not a pessimist; it is our spiritual duty to stay positive. Keep on at it. Two steps forward, one step back. The path is not smooth, the journey is not without setbacks. I believe that - despite many obstacles and reversals of fortune - good will prevail over evil (evil being the absence of good rather than some satanic force). Our inflection points seem to be coming closer and closer together (1939 - 2022), but somehow I believe that historically, this will be seen as a phase, Humanity in its Adolescence; unable to take a long-term view. We will survive - and thrive.
But will we live to see closure? Will all the things we worry about today come right by the time we die? Or is that asking for too short a timeframe?
Brought up amid the optimism of the Elizabethan age of the "white heat of the technological revolution" and the Whig view of history, I spent the first 55 years of my life seeing progress. The past ten years have been a retreat; this is the step back after the two steps forward. But there will be steps forward again.
The End of Times will be many billions - trillions - of years from now. It will be gradual. Our Consciousnesses, which will have vastly evolved in understanding and scope, will know, and feel, and experience, greatly more than we can even hope to imagine today. The end-point? Total awareness of everything. God in All, All in God.
Lent 2022: Day 41
A Better Future
Lent 2021: Day 41
The Holiest of Holies
Lent 2020: Day 40
God and Nation don't go together
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