Why are we so obsessed with the apocalypse?

[MrTwo]

Seriously. This idea of the world ending all of sudden has permeated every type of media. Books, TV, films, paintings, comics, everything!

Considering that most people try not to think about their own death, why is it that we are compelled to tell the story of the apocalypse over and over? Is it because it is everyone dying, not just you, so its not so much of a big deal? Or because it is associated with zombies, and we LUUURVE zombies?

I know many people will say "Its just a fad," but surely there must be an underlying reason. Why don't we rattle on this much about the real genocides, with extinctions of animals and such. Perhaps it is just the human races inherent narcissism.

Thoughts?

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Well, the reason why I think it's so appealing is because it represents a way for society to begin anew.

That and the fact you can basically "go nuts" and kill or steal whatever you want.

 

[Luna]

Probably because it would be possibly the most significant event of all time for a variety of reasons.

 

[Nickolai77]

I think it's to do with how we're all dissatisfied with society in one form or another. Some people are pissed off at how exploitative business' can be, others are pissed off at how the government can enact stupid and unjust laws, others are pissed off at all the stupid crap on TV and some are pissed off at the vile and sordid opinions their fellow countrymen express.

So, the apocalypse fulfils a sort of subconscious desire to destroy society and start afresh. It's like making a lego model which you become increasingly unhappy with, and unable to amend it you decide to smash it. Very satisfying.

Alternatively, it may be to do with the burden of social obligations and obeying the law. From day one obligations are imposed on us. To talk, to walk, to do well in school, get good grades, get a girlfriend, get a job, obey the law, get your own house. There are thousands of things society expects us to do and frankly i think it can be bloody annoying.

So, the apocalypse, in destroying civilisation also destroys those social obligations, making us free from them. In that sense, the apocalypse is the ultimate form of freedom.

Which is of course illusionary, because in an apocalypse situation your freedom is much easier to take without a government with the power to enforce the law. But i think we all like the imagine we'll be the one who'll survive, fend off bandits and roam the wastelands on a fantasy adventure catered to us by games such as Fallout.

We all just want to be free, and the apocalypse is a fantasy illusion catering to that desire.

 

[Mayhaps]

Probably because it would be possibly the most significant event of all time for a variety of reasons.

Assuming the apocalypse meant everybody dies and is the end of times.
Wouldn't it be the least significant event ever?
I mean nobody would be around to care afterwards.

 

[MrTwo]

I think it's to do with how we're all dissatisfied with society in one form or another. Some people are pissed off at how exploitative business' can be, others are pissed off at how the government can enact stupid and unjust laws, others are pissed off at all the stupid crap on TV and some are pissed off at the vile and sordid opinions their fellow countrymen express.

So, the apocalypse fulfils a sort of subconscious desire to destroy society and start afresh. It's like making a lego model which you become increasingly unhappy with, and unable to amend it you decide to smash it. Very satisfying.

Alternatively, it may be to do with the burden of social obligations and obeying the law. From day one obligations are imposed on us. To talk, to walk, to do well in school, get good grades, get a girlfriend, get a job, obey the law, get your own house. There are thousands of things society expects us to do and frankly i think it can be bloody annoying.

So, the apocalypse, in destroying civilisation also destroys those social obligations, making us free from them. In that sense, the apocalypse is the ultimate form of freedom.

Which is of course illusionary, because in an apocalypse situation your freedom is much easier to take without a government with the power to enforce the law. But i think we all like the imagine we'll be the one who'll survive, fend off bandits and roam the wastelands on a fantasy adventure catered to us by games such as Fallout.

We all just want to be free, and the apocalypse is a fantasy illusion catering to that desire.

You make good points, and I mostly agree with you. But there are different types of freedom.

For example a person in a developed country may be regarded as having more freedom in that they can marry who they want, get a job they want (if they work hard enough), and vote for whom they want.

But they have limits. They must obey the law, and they cannot simply get jobs and get married with no effort at all (mostly). Whereas people in underdeveloped countries that are rife with rape and murder have freedom from their morals, if they so choose.

So really, the apocalypse would give freedom from the social constraints, but also the moral ones. So why do we want to be free of the morals we work so hard to create and uphold, creating democracies and bodies like the UN? Do we really want to revert to our primitive roots?

 

[the Dept of Science]

Every generation considers the next one to be the end of morality. We see all the stupid stuff they do and I think part of us takes it as the sign of the end of days. Perhaps we all just worry about the future and this is a logical extension of that.
Furthermore, every few years there comes along a reason (of wildly varying plausibility) that the world may actually end. The fact that there's a slim chance that they may be true means that they are perhaps something to worry about.

The reason the writers like it so much is simply because its a dramatic setting. The same reason why there are so many books about love and war. If you set your film during or after an apocalypse, you immediately get tension, a fight for survival, philosophical questions etc.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Every society tends to be obsessed with the idea that the are on the verge of catastrophe for some reason or other. Sometimes it's the fault of groups they don't like, other times it is what will cleanse society of them. The idea that a post-apocalyptic society will benefit people currently not in power might sound tempting to people who haven't stopped and thought about the odds that they'll survive, let alone be the ones to enjoy what's left of the world.

 

[Luna]

Probably because it would be possibly the most significant event of all time for a variety of reasons.

Assuming the apocalypse meant everybody dies and is the end of times.
Wouldn't it be the least significant event ever?
I mean nobody would be around to care afterwards.

It raises the question...


Is the Mona Lisa really beautiful if nobody can look at it? Maybe, maybe not.

 

[Don Savik]

Because people think they can be the lone-gunman badass that kicks ass and takes names. Same thing with zombie apocalypse scenarios. Also so they don't have to be controlled by the man.

As much as I would like the freedom, all the roaming killers, thugs and rapists attacking helpless people would not be worth it in my opinion.

Besides, in an apocalypse scenario there would probably be no internet.

I'm pro-internet case you were wondering.

 

[Vault101]

hold on..there was a cracked article that explained it...

ah! here it is!

http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-were-obsessed-with-apocalypse/

essentially its all jsut a big old power wank...we want to be the badass survivor..not the person who dies in the explosion

 

[OniaPL]

Because maybe that would make everything somehow less shit.

 

[Keoul]

Because the world is a superstitious and cowardly lot...

 

[Nickolai77]

I think it's to do with how we're all dissatisfied with society in one form or another. Some people are pissed off at how exploitative business' can be, others are pissed off at how the government can enact stupid and unjust laws, others are pissed off at all the stupid crap on TV and some are pissed off at the vile and sordid opinions their fellow countrymen express.

So, the apocalypse fulfils a sort of subconscious desire to destroy society and start afresh. It's like making a lego model which you become increasingly unhappy with, and unable to amend it you decide to smash it. Very satisfying.

Alternatively, it may be to do with the burden of social obligations and obeying the law. From day one obligations are imposed on us. To talk, to walk, to do well in school, get good grades, get a girlfriend, get a job, obey the law, get your own house. There are thousands of things society expects us to do and frankly i think it can be bloody annoying.

So, the apocalypse, in destroying civilisation also destroys those social obligations, making us free from them. In that sense, the apocalypse is the ultimate form of freedom.

Which is of course illusionary, because in an apocalypse situation your freedom is much easier to take without a government with the power to enforce the law. But i think we all like the imagine we'll be the one who'll survive, fend off bandits and roam the wastelands on a fantasy adventure catered to us by games such as Fallout.

We all just want to be free, and the apocalypse is a fantasy illusion catering to that desire.

You make good points, and I mostly agree with you. But there are different types of freedom.

For example a person in a developed country may be regarded as having more freedom in that they can marry who they want, get a job they want (if they work hard enough), and vote for whom they want.

But they have limits. They must obey the law, and they cannot simply get jobs and get married with no effort at all (mostly). Whereas people in underdeveloped countries that are rife with rape and murder have freedom from their morals, if they so choose.

So really, the apocalypse would give freedom from the social constraints, but also the moral ones. So why do we want to be free of the morals we work so hard to create and uphold, creating democracies and bodies like the UN? Do we really want to revert to our primitive roots?

Maybe one could see if apocalypse films are more popular in the developed world compared to the developing world. Still, i wouldn't know how would control external variables.

I think there may be an unconscious appeal to going back to living in a state of nature. The way we live, in civilisation, isn't really what we're minds and bodies are evolved to do. Our minds and bodies are made to forage for food and hunt mammoths across the plains, living in clan-like groups of about a two dozen people at most. Not living in an isolated nuclear family in a city of tens of thousands of strangers were you use a metal box on wheels to get around instead of walking, breathe in polluted air, spending long amounts of time sitting in front of a screen at work and at home whilst eating processed food.

There is actually some academic debate as to wherever it was good that we humans developed agriculture and civilisation. Once we started farming and settling in towns diseases became a huge problem and we lived and still live physically unhealthy lifestyles. Hunter gathers had much longer life expectancies and were physically (and arguably mentally) in much better shape than those humans who settled down to develop civilisation.

Of course, historically the hunter-gather humans were screwed when white man came along with guns, steel and disease and civilisation. Which of civilisation brings numerous obvious benefits like science, technology and arguably more peace and security which enriches our lives. Anyway that's both sides of the debate- but the point is that in most apocalypse situations, humans would go back to a hunter-gather lifestyle.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Because apocalypse in fiction is cool. Dark, edgy stories are cool. Zombies are cool. Demons are cool.

That's the simplest way of putting it, to be honest.

 

[Tsaba]

*Cough*

Let's see where this goes eh?

EDIT: I agree with the statement above me, people like to think of themselves as something greater than what they are.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

It's a useful tool for writers. Throw in an apocalypse and you can reinvent the world however you want...

 

[wooty]

I think its because we now lack the ability to imagine and create something new, so all we can do is destroy, its simple really.

Creating a world requires vision and and a sense of wonder, its a lot easier to just jam a shell hole in the side of the White House and say "yep, theres our premise. Now lets dress the population in brown rags and make a few hundred movies/games". Its easy profit really.

 

[Necron_warrior]

Every society tends to be obsessed with the idea that the are on the verge of catastrophe for some reason or other. Sometimes it's the fault of groups they don't like, other times it is what will cleanse society of them. The idea that a post-apocalyptic society will benefit people currently not in power might sound tempting to people who haven't stopped and thought about the odds that they'll survive, let alone be the ones to enjoy what's left of the world.

Vampire the masquerade ?
Nice

OT: Its kind of like 'The Mask' (the original one anyway)
'...by removing all personal and social inhibitions...'

It means, If an apocalypse happened, no (foreseeable) consequences come from anything

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Well, the reason why I think it's so appealing is because it represents a way for society to begin anew.

That and the fact you can basically "go nuts" and kill or steal whatever you want.

Pretty much this, though I feel people think the Post-End world will be more like Mad Max or Fallout rather then the horridly depressing The Road.

Yeah, I don't want to live in THAT world.

EDIT: You know when your computer get's all sluggish, makes the most basic of commands a chore and is constantly on the verge of a breakdown? Well in order to resolve that, we either do a very thorough maintenance job on it, sifting through years of abuse on the system and deleting all those files you thought "but I might need them again!?" and cleaning up the jumbled data scattered through your hardrive.

That or we wipe the drive and start from fresh, though we have no guarantee that it will make things better in the future.

Yeah, our world is seemingly at that point, and pro-apocalypse people (is that a thing yet?) think the long winded maintenance routine is infeasible or just not worth the bother.

EDIT EDIT: I suppose the other alternative is to get a new computer (find a new planet), but just don't have the funding to do that. Too busy with all our FPSs and sucking at Economic sims.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: I'm actually quite chuffed with this analogy, if you don't mind me saying.