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One Future

Enough With the Apocalypse Already!

AUTHOR:Grey Lindley | DATE: 09 Mar, 2009 | CATEGORY:One Future

Just got back from seeing latest Hollywood blockbuster The Day the Earth Stood Still, which fortunately, I managed to convince myself was in the name of research. True to a review I read, it featured Keanu Reeves yet again being paid millions to impersonate a floorboard. The theme of this particular film was centred around Aliens coming to Earth to destroy human civilisation because in their eyes humanity is a danger to other extraterrestrial civilisations, and featured scenes of mass destruction on an epic scale. It was another of what seems to be an endless barrage of hyped up CGI enriched armageddon/O-no-it's-the-end-of-the-world dramas where life on earth almost ends or civilisation collapses due to asteriods, zombies, aliens, viruses, mutants, robots, bad ecological management or all of the above - in no particular order. Its seems that in the movie and computer game industries, the preferred and prevailing setting for content is the world's end. If it's not the apocalypse itself, it's before the apocalypse, after the apocalypse, during the apocalypse, the cause of the apocalypse, life after the apocalypse etc.

Not sure what I mean? Let me refresh your memory:

MOVIES:

  • Life after nuclear war (The Day After, 1984)
  • Man wakes up and discovers he's the last person alive in all humanity (The Quiet Earth, 1985)
  • Violence after nuclear war and collapse of modern civilisation (Mad Max, 1980)
  • All plant life dies, people turn into neurotic cannibals living in apartment blocks (Delicatessen, 1991)
  • Future overrun by deadly disease, all is not well. (12 Monkeys, 1995)
  • Post global warming earth, with slightly elevated sea levels compared to current predictions (Waterworld, 1995)
  • Giant black living sphere of pure hyper-intelligent evil and death comes from the deepest regions outside time and space to engulf the Earth, but is stopped by a deadly laser of true love. (The 5th Element, 1997).
  • Soft apocalypse: Civilisation dominated by genetic fascists (Gattaca, 1997)
  • Earth attacked by aliens, but we win, (of course) (Independence Day, 1998)
  • Earth threatened by giant asteroid, (Armageddon, 1998)
  • Earth threatened by giant meteor (Deep Impact, 1998)
  • Earth taken over by Robots who anihilate all vestiges of the human race and use some for batteries (The Matrix, 1999)
  • Earth attacked by aliens, we win again (War of the Worlds, 2005)
  • Earth taken over by Zombies - civilisation collapses (Day of the Dead, 1985 & 2008)
  • Earth taken over by more Zombies - civilisation collapses (Resident Evil, 2002)
  • Earth taken over by Zombies and civilisation collapses - deep and meaningful version with good direction (28 Days Later, 2002)
  • Earth taken over by Zombies - good director version part II. Different director, though. (28 Weeks Later, )
  • Earth freezes over and other relevant climate issues (The Day After Tomorrow, 2004)
  • Women unable to become pregnant and society collapses (Children of Men, 2006)
  • Scotland taken over by deadly virus and walled off, but eventually virus spreads beyond the wall (Doomsday, 2008)
  • Virus transforms almost all humanity into Vampire like creatures - civilisation collapses (I Am Legend, 2007)
  • Earth taken over by a Hyper-Intelligent All powerful Computer with Arnold Shwarzeneggar in it (Terminator III)
  • Earth taken over by robots who really want to kills us (Terminator Salvation, 2009)
  • Earth attacked by aliens, then they just leave (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2008)
  • Sun almost dies and Earth almost freezes (Sunshine, 2008)
  • Americans sublimely wiped out by gases released from plants (The Happening, 2008)
  • Humans leave Earth as giant trash heap (WALL-E, 2008)
  • The end of the world is about to happen (Knowing, 2009)
  • Oh, no, not again (2012, 2009)

COMPUTER GAMES (some):

  • Wasteland, 1998
  • Resident Evil 2, 1998
  • Soldiers of Anarchy, 2002
  • Half Life 2, 2004
  • Gears of War I and II, 2006-2008
  • Fallout I-III 1998-2008
  • Rage, 2007
  • Waterstorm (2008)
  • Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (2008)
  • Disaster: Day of Crisis (2008)

OK that's a funny list but it is by no means comprehensive, [For a more comprehensive list of movies, try http://www.quietearth.us/postapoc.htm] and I am trying to make a serious point about this. Nothing like this scale of realistic imagery and and scope of destruction has been portrayed ever before in history, so consistently, with armies of CGI artist doing their best to make it look as convincing as possible. This almost overwhelming stream of apocalyptic content is inconcievable 100 years ago.

Maybe all this mass mayhem is just some good old fashioned healthy fear? It makes sense that with this new and developing global consciousness of ours, come sensible fears. Definitely some modern media is actually educational and provides a realistic portryal of potential scenarios. But how much fear do we need? We have an entire generation of kids rabidly consuming this stuff, like there's no tomorrow (no pun intended). An entire generation growing constantly envisioning the end of the world in stunning CGI. I wouldn't mind if there was some substantial counterweight in terms of visions of the future providing a context for all this, but there really isn't. I mean actual visions of a sustainable future. Having read the above list, try and think of some wholesome positive portrayals of the future of humanity in modern cinema or computer games? Anything spring to mind? Nothing? NOT ONE!?

They are around, just not very good. A couple of vague examples I can think of like Star Trek and new computer games like Spore, and Mass Effect, but they don't really cover it earnestly, being Sci-fi spaceship type scenarios and interestingly they all seem to go off world. Unless I'm missing something here, if we stay on Earth, we seem to be left short.* Hrumph. Quiet, happy, sane, sustainable, developing, ecologially oriented, humane futures just don't seem to be sexy, or at least, bankable.**

So I fear for the consciousness of the kids growing up on all this stuff. In general, we don't seem to provide a ground of hope and sustainability, In general or to young people as the context in which all this can be digested. Quite the opposite. We all seem to be gripped by the fear of rapid climate change and live with the background fear of nuclear war looming there out of sight, subliminally sickening us with feelings of complete hopelessness. I grew up in the 1980's when the possibility of nuclear armageddon deemed to be a very real possibility. There was a sense of hopelessness that just shouldn't be dumped on young people. It's not fair, it's not actually true to the situation and can't be helpful terms of developing very fundamental outlooks on life in the 21st century and beyond. Surely growing up with a sense of nihilism will just create nihilistic adults!

In his book The Promise Ahead, speaker and author Duane Elgin proposes a thought experiment - What if the human race was an individual human being? He asks his audiences, "If we think of the entire human species as being just one individual person, how old would you say we are? Are we a child? Are we preadolescent? Are we adults? Are we in old age. " In a fascinating experiment in collective wisdom, after asking many of his audiences around the world for several years, it seems the verdict is that we, as a global culture, are in adolescence. My point being - this time looking at our collective emerging consciousness from this point of view - surely a good measure of hope and visions of a bright and wonderful future is called for in the growth of any happy young adult!

It pains me that all of this mass mayhem largely represents an apparent conviction that we are headed for some self-induced mass cataclysm. It's a symptom of what seems to be an extreme lack of faith in humanity's potential and role in the future of this planet. All the more painful knowing that a sustainable and very amazing human future is technically, socially, economically and ecologically completely realistic and viable starting right now. So what visions do we hold of the human future? What IS our goal as a global culture, as a global species??

We just don't think about It yet do we? Not really. We collectively don't think about humanity 500 years from now, let alone 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 years from now because we still haven't worked out why we should. And anywho, our reasoning goes, it doesn't apply to us cause we'll all be dead. We have only just started to really seriously think about life 100 years from now for what seems to be the first time ever, because we have to, in response to climate change and ecological issues. It's encouraging but just a knee-jerk response oriented around survival. Not a consciously initiated endeavour to seeking and developing the meaning of human life on Earth.

I think the values of a genuine cultural movement for a sustainable future, and a genuinely sustainable culture needs a sustainable reason, and that will be a reason that goes beyond the issues of mere survival and perspectives based on our mortality. That reason will surely be about the essential role and meaning of humanity's beautiful self-reflective and evolving consciousness in the biosphere, the solar system and the cosmos.



*I'm sure there may be some great Sci fi books. One I know of is "Bringing It all Back Home" by Ursula Le Guin. Commentated by a historian tens or hundreds of thousands of years in the future, looking back to a time way beyond now - but the main civilisation has regressed back to a kind of tribalism, not quite the result I'm after!

**My list of recent hopefuls: City of Ember