We’re darkly fascinated with the “end of the world.” Why?

Apocalypse returns again and again in pop culture as a storytelling device – in the form of zombies, environmental destruction, wicked viruses, nuclear holocaust. We flock to see Dawn of the Dead and Mad Max, and hang onto our copies of The Stand. What is it about these stories that draws us in?

Here’s a great commentary from the upcoming issue of Orion magazine on the new movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic novel,  The Road. The story takes place in the context of some sort of environmental disaster – leaving what’s left of civilization to unravel into an every-man-for-himself war zone. The story lays bare in an almost scientifically sterile way – two survivors, father and son, wandering through a dead landscape – what persists, ultimately, in the human soul.

Here’s an excerpt:

Some have referred to The Road as science fiction. The genre it more closely resembles is the western—in which a hero brings moral order to a lawless territory. In both the novel and the film, the boy is repeatedly referred to as God, or the word of God, and in like manner he serves as the moral compass. “We’re the good guys, right?” is his refrain. It is he who demands they offer a can of pears to a starved old man, who insists they return the clothes to the thief the father has stripped naked and left for dead. He reminds his father how to be good, and in turn the man teaches him to be hopeful, repeatedly assuring him that they will not die, that everything will turn out all right. The love between them—they are “each the other’s world entire”—is the antidote to the debilitating grimness of the narrative. The father tells his son that they are “carrying the fire”—and perhaps it is this, the light they carry with them, that makes the story ultimately redemptive and meaningful to so many: the warmth of its emotional core.

I think what the apocalyptic stories force to the surface is, finally, an examination of our social fabric and a testing of our humanity. In short, the world may be ending, but it’s really about us. What will we do? How will we act? Will we change? Will the best be brought out in us – or the worst?

And whatever our response, it always shines brighter in a backdrop of a dying world. Maybe we’re drawn to these stories because they remind us of the intensity of human feeling – from heroism to deceit, from love to hopelessness. To the movie-going crowd, are these feelings scarce? Is it a stretch to say that in the West,  where strip malls, big box consumerism, and neighborhoods ruled by TV’s minimize contact with human-ness, the social/emotional microscope that apocalypse introduces is something we unconsciously enjoy?

In the context of sustainability, it’s easy to begin thinking of these stories as crystal ball warnings of a future that’s waiting in the wings if we don’t get our act together. I tend to cringe when that’s the literal argument: Transition Towns does this, the Peak Oil crowd does this – it’s Cinematic Environmentalism. Maybe it’s not even environmentalism. Maybe it’s more like cultural secession. I’m doubtful of the effectiveness of the argument to begin with, but more interestingly, I think it misses the point of “apocalypse.” It’s not finally about the outside world – that’ll keep spinning. It’s about us. It’s about reminding us of the dynamics of living together in a society, and about the best and worst of human potential.

Stories are always at work behind the scenes of culture. In America, that story is shaped by the concepts of striving and “progress.” In our individual lives, it might be about overcoming something, reaching something, or becoming something. Whether the stories are true or not really doesn’t matter – what matters is the kinds of consequence they have in our actions. I wonder if our fascination with what happens during an apocalypse is an indication of the kind of story we’re looking for? Is it a scary warning to steer clear of doomsdays around the corner, or a challenge to “carry the fire” (as McCarthy’s character says)? Could that “fire” be the preservation of the best of being human? Of civilization that works? Would the result be something close to sustainability?

Check out the trailer for The Road:

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