Lust for the Apocalypse
WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN SPOILER ALERTED!
Why are there so many apocalyptic stories these days? Of course stories about coming cataclysms or the end of the world have always been with us--the Book of Revelation, Nostradamus, the Norse Ragnarok all come to mind--but it seems that a kind of apocalyptic "genre" has literally (excuse the pun) "exploded" over the past couple of decades. Here is a very incomplete list of major cultural expressions of one kind of apocalypse or another:
Battlestar Galactica, Terminator (1, 2, 3, 4 and TV show), Jericho (short-lived TV show), Fallout 3 (video game), Left Behind (a series with I don't even know how many parts), A World Without Humans (just one Apocalypse, er, History Channel documentary on the end--I think half their lineup is now devoted to juxtaposing Nostradamus, the Book of Revelation and Mayan Calendar doomsday prophecies), I Am Legend, 28 Days Later, every video game with a post-apocalyptic zombie theme, The Postman, Waterworld, and....you get the picture.
But the real question is WHY all these stories and why now? While the obvious interpretation would be to say that these stories are depictions of our worst fears, projections of our inner demons and manifestations of our cultural nightmares, I think that there is more to it than that. I think these shows actually manifest some of our deepest held desires, hopes and dreams. I think we actually are experiencing a kind of lust for the apocalypse. Why?
The answer came to me as I was watching the Battlestar Galactica finale last night. After an epic, mind-blowing first hour chalk full of special effects and explosions and high-tech wizardry, the show concludes with humanity arriving at a pristine, natural and technology-free Earth. And instead of trying to rebuild their civilization with the scavenged remains of their spaceships which can recycle water indefinitely and even one-up Einstein by traveling faster than light, they decide to abandon it all and start over.
As I watched the picturesque scenes of wide open grasslands and rolling mountains and clean oceans and immense herds of wild animals of every kind, I couldn't help but wish I was there with them. It's a striking thought, isn't it? An Earth without cities, roads, pollution, traffic, cell phones, schedules (or even clocks!). An Earth with about six billion fewer people. And here you are, a human being from a highly technological civilization that had lost its soul and brought about its own annihilation in this great big open world with no rules and no bills to pay and no Cylons chasing you anymore and real wind across your face and the heat of a real sun shining down on you. How would you feel? I realized that I would feel...free. And I think that this final sequence of what I still think is in the top 5 TV shows of this decade (and maybe ever) gives us a glimpse into what most of us feel so much of the time these days but we are too afraid to utter because...well because it's irrational, isn't it?
Yes, I said irrational. What do you think is going to happen to them now? They've left behind most of their tools and weapons and gadgets and gizmos. How many of those 30,000 or so people are going to survive the next year? The next five years? What would be the life expectancy of little three-year-old Hera? About thirty years? She better start having kids early to become the geologic "Eve" the ending proclaims her to be. Human life without all this technological magic is by no means easy. I had a brush with this the other day at the dentist. I was lectured for not having been in a few years and underwent a very painful hour of scraping and water blasting and whatever else they do in there. And I thought...well what the hell did people do when there were NO dentists? Is this all really necessary? And of course the answer is people lost a lot of teeth. They might even die from various infections of the teeth and gums. But they wouldn't have a dentist bill.
But don't get me wrong here. I'm not trying to rain on the lust for apocalypse parade. I think the very point of the Galactica finale and the very point of so many of these shows is that our deepest meaning and value will never be found in the rational. There is a part of us that longs for a life that IS challenging and mysterious and wonderful and painful and strange. There is a part of us that wants there to be angels who walk among us and lead us towards ends that we can't even fathom. There's a part of us that feels dead inside in a world where we've pushed death away to the margins and even hide away those who are too old in homes built just for that purpose.
We want to capture something of a freer, simpler, more invigorating life. Would it be a loss to lose five years off my life if I spent five fewer years at places like the Department of Motor Vehicles? These images of technology run amok in many ways show our utter frustration with the highly technical systems which we've locked ourselves into. Think about it. The last time I was at the DMV, I got in a huge argument with one of the workers about some stupid fee or other that I apparently hadn't paid but had to and couldn't appeal except to so and so who works in the whatever but they are only in on these days and...you get the picture. And the lady explaining this to me was very apologetic and I was very apologetic for getting angry, because I wasn't angry at HER, and I just kept asking to be given a direct number to the person I SHOULD be angry with, but no one seemed to even know who that was. I just kept getting passed along from one person within the system to another, all of whom shared my contempt for the system, didn't know anyone who could change it, said it was "just their job" and yet they "couldn't do anything" to help me even though they thought MORALLY and HUMANLY it would have been the right thing to do.
And I just wanted to shout at the top of my lungs that WE created this system (why I don't know?) and WE run the system and WE can change the system. Can't we? Shouldn't we? And yet, even as one massive system after another fails us--my problems at the DMV pale in comparison to the current financial mess--it seems like NO ONE can do anything about it. Sure, we're pissed that AIG paid those bonuses and boy we'd really like to get that money back but golly gee shucks there's nothing we can do! The system of complex, convoluted laws and practices we've somehow strung together has our hands tied!
And we leave it up to people like John Stewart, a frakkin' comedian, to call the CNBC's of the world on the shit that they constantly pull. And maybe that's because deep down we realize that so much of this massive convoluted complex bureaucratic nightmare we've created is a joke, and the joke's on us. We've created a world that feels so unreal and so inhuman that we retreat to violent video games and fantastical television shows and more and more extreme music in order to try and connect with anything.
The "system," whatever system it is, is just too big and too complex and too entrenched and too powerful for any of us to do anything about it. Even the president (whom I voted for and happen to like and happen to think really is a good guy) and his team look powerless as they go up against it. Even Congress and all these Wall Street CEOs and masters of the universe offer little more than the woman at the DMV who said "I'm really sorry but I can't do anything about it."
So we actually long, I think, for some apocalyptic catastrophe to wipe it all away. Not because we want people to suffer and die or even out of rage and hate. We want it all wiped away so that like those ancient astronauts of the Battlestar Galactica we can start again. We want to believe we could do it better this time. This time we'd discover antibiotics but we wouldn't create HMOs. This time we'd all share the work and wouldn't put up with someone in our small little group taking all our resources for himself. This time we wouldn't pave paradise and put up a parking lot. This time we'd get it right.
But what stops us from simply making the changes we want to make right now? People created HMOs and DMVs and SUVs and WMDs and AIGs. Why can't we un-make them and re-make them and create new systems that work for people and not against people? Is it that the world is just too big? Are there just too many people? Do we have these complex systems of rules and regulations because the personal ways we have of dealing with problems just don't work on a massive scale? Is it simply a necessary evil of living in a world where pretty much everyone is anonymous that I have to have a piece of laminated paper to prove I'm 21 before you'll sell me that drink?
Could we split up into smaller, more personal communities that keep in touch via the internet but that remain intact so that personal interaction really could rule the day again?
Could we give up some of our "standard of living" for a cleaner and healthier and wilder planet? I know that the Obama administration encourages us to move beyond the "false choice" of either growing our economy or creating a greener society. But at some level, isn't the problem really that there are too many of us consuming too many resources?
The one thing I'm sure of is that if we don't find a way to un-make and re-make many of our systems then those systems will be un-made for us and at the same time by us. We're living in a world that cannot stand. But how long until it falls down?
And might it be true that deep down that's what we really want and can't wait for it to happen?