The Apocalypse is a popular subject, and with good reason. What better way to add drama than by introducing a deadly meteor, creating a horde of zombies, or just generally suggesting that everything’s about to finally go horribly wrong for the last time?
The term is first found in the Book of Revelations, a name translated from the Ancient Greek ‘Apocalypsis Ioannou’. The book contains a prediction of the end of the world, and the final judgement of humanity by God. Faithful followers of Christ will be granted eternal happiness, while sinners will be cast into the fires of Gehenna and a burning late to suffer for eternity. Various plagues shall beset the Earth, and the world shall end.
This vision of an inevitable and unavoidable end of all, looming ever-present in humanity’s consciousness, is something which can be seen throughout religion. In the ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism, it is predicted that “a dark cloud [will make] the whole sky night” and, just as in Christianity, sinners will be separated from good people. Muslims also believe that the end of the world will inevitably arrive and its demise will be accompanied by many signs,.
All these beliefs point to an original human fear that, with humanity helpless, the world will somehow end.
This primal fear of a supernatural and invincible element has been portrayed countless times. Films like Armageddon, Planet of the Apes and 2012 depict science fiction scenarios in which nature catches up with humanity and wreaks havoc, in the form of an asteroid from space, over-evolved apes and a Mayanpredicted disaster.
Ideas about natural and unpredictable disasters were developed by H. G. Wells and others with the advent of the concept of an alien invasion of Earth. Wells’ War of the Worlds was one of the first works to depict such an event, and this seminal novel has since been adapted in a number of fairly disappointing instances. The book tells the story of aliens, driven from Mars due to the ravages of disease, invading Earth, easily defeating the world’s armies with their superior technology, and then ruling until they encounter their own natural apocalypse in the form Earth-based bacteria. While the story seems initially about an apocalypse for humanity, one might observe that the Martians themselves are on two occasions defeated by nature. The alien invasion trope has since become rather popular, appearing in the film Independence Day, John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids and even Queen’s excellent ‘Flash Gordon’.
However, in today’s society these are somewhat rare and unfashionable ways for the world to end. In 1962, American President John F. Kennedy announced that the chance of the world ending as a result of nuclear war in the near future was between a third and a half. The prospect of nuclear war between West and East and the terrifying concept of mutually assured destruction brought the idea of an apocalypse into the realms not just of possibility, but of probability.
A real-life means to the end of the world excited cultural imaginations like nothing else. Peter Tosh’s brilliant ‘We Don’t Want No Nuclear War’, Nena’s ever-recognizable ‘99 Luftballons’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Breathing’ exemplify the boom in disaffected, anti-nuclear sentiment. Bob Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ described a nuclear wasteland where “the people are many and their hands are all empty” and “pellets of poison are flooding their waters” as a result of the “hard rain” and “the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world”. These artists formed the voice of a generation desperate for their leaders to see sense and avoid the apocalypse.
Technological fears constitute another vast proportion of apocalyptic stories. The successful Terminator series, as well as The Matrix and I, Robot imagine a world in which machines gain dominance over their human masters, an idea which must surely gain ground after the recent news that a computer from Reading has allegedly passed the Turing Test, and can be declared to have the ability to think.
Similarly, films like 28 Days Later and Zombieland, along with books such as 1954’s I Am Legend place the blame for the end of the world on technological advancement, as human experimentation produces a virus, or some variation on that theme, creating monsters who wage war on humanity.
Once we add to the picture the more recent fear of global warming and a man-made natural apocalypse, depicted vividly in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow and lamented in Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’, we can see a change in views of the apocalypse.
While religion tells us that the end will come without warning, and that we can do nothing to prevent it, popular culture prefers to place apocalyptic blame on humanity’s shoulders. There is a rapidly growing idea, supported in some academic circles (notably Oxford philosopher Professor Nick Bostrom), that we will inevitably destroy ourselves. Don’t sit around waiting for the asteroid, get off your arse and recycle your cardboard.
