It seems obsessing over our mortality as a civilization/species is a relatively recent phenomenon, of the past 60 years or so, coinciding with the atomic age and our new found capability for destruction/complete annihilation placed in man’s hands… man, a war mongering, violent, selfish race eager to act before assessing the consequences.
Of course, this is quite predated by “the holy apocalypse”, complete with four horseman, but, for a few millenniums, that was largely all we, as humanity, had to sustain ourselves and our clear desire to see our race eradicated with. But we are a smarter society now, or at least more aware of what’s going on in nature, in biology, in science and technology, economy and commerce, so we know enough to know that a negative event in any one of disciplines, exacerbated to some ridiculous degree, could end it all.
Of course the ELE (”extinction level event”) isn’t all that likely, afterall crocodiles and some fish survived whatever apocalypse it was that dinosaurs couldn’t, so some ones, and/or, some things will carry on regardless of what happens. In our modern end-of-the-world myth-making, this is where the fun is, the survivor scenario, what happens to those left behind, how does everything change, and so often the point seems to be, well, “as bad as the apocalypse is, society’s now kind of better than what it was, no?” Let’s face it our society sucks,that’s why chaos and calamity is some weird dream, or at least fascination. It’s like the ultimate freedom, no work, no rules. There’s also no food, no fuel, no people, and often no hope, but there you go, the price you pay for an adventure.
But just know this, if there are survivors, it’s not likely to be you is it. Sure, you might learn to syphon gas and run a generator, but can you hotwire a plane? Can you skin a rabbit? Can you drink the water without getting dysentery? Can you survive without the internet to guide you? Did you forget to download Wikipedia to your solar powered ebook reader? Well, you’re screwed.
Jeez… are you TRYING to give me nightmares?? Knock it off :)
Comment by Adrienne — 23/08/2011 @ 9:46 pm
Actually, while probably exacerbated by the cold war, apocalyptic (non biblical) fiction has been around for a couple of hundred years. Mary Shelley had her The Last Man, which actually sort of set the tone for most stories up to the 50s when the cold war stories emerged. Early ones also seemed to be more about plague than about war but it was probably WWII that introduced the idea we might actually be able to destroy ourselves.
When i was a kid, my fascination with PA fiction, as well as a (un)healthy dose of misanthropy, had me fantasizing about being a Last Man. I loved the idea of having all the world to myself and was convinced the local library would teach me all I needed to know to survive. Of course, I was a kid who didn’t get the idea that our modern age of medicines and vaccines and prepared food allowed us to stave off getting sick or severely injured all the time.
Comment by TBIT — 30/08/2011 @ 2:37 pm