End of times narratives are as old as the beginning of time. No doubt superstitious tribes believed that any indiscretion could anger the gods enough that their mighty powers would destroy earth and all of us weak, puny mortals. Then there's the books of revelations, the last chapter of the New Testament and one wicked acid trip with evil horses and insect plagues. Then we have Nostradamus, whose prophecies about the end of the world have been interpreted to refer exactly to right now (though they bear more of a resemblance to the magician trick of mind-reading from some random person in the audience). But no seriously, he was referring to right now, just check out History Channel.
Remember Y2K? Everybody thought the whole world of computing would crash, not to mention a couple people who thought in general the significance of a millenial rollover no doubt heralded the end of days. In just the last 2 years we've had Harold Camping claiming rapture and judgment day would take place on May 21, 2011 (with end of time occurring in October) and then there's all the concern about December 20, 2012 (those Mayans - so smart they could predict the end of the world but apparently overlooked the arrival of the Europeans). There are shows about Doomsday Preppers, whackjobs so afraid about the end of the world they get their Cold War bomb shelters with fresh supplies of sardines and assault rifles in case the nuclear zombie pollution hordes should destroy life as we know it. And then there's the fears mounting from the impending Fiscal Cliff (rising taxes and cutting funding to federal programs), the Dairy Cliff (the cut of the Farm Bill, which will send prices of milk and such through the roof), and the Retail Cliff (14,000 dockworkers going on strike which will lead to products waiting at docks and thereby make them skyrocket). The fears growing from these have us appraising a future in which we have less money, can't afford milk, can't buy things, and our nation falls apart, all on January 1st. Certain doom, no doubt.
Here's the deal with the Retail Cliff - while we may struggle without imports, haven't we been preaching the virtues of an independent America? Even more, haven't we all already bought enough shit around the holidays to maybe hold back for a while? As for the dairy cliff, that's a reversion to old government prices from back when cows were milked by hands. That'll double the prices of milk but did you know we're the only mammal that drinks milk AFTER adulthood? Anybody else think maybe there's something a bit, I dunno, off, about that? Just drink almond milk, it's better for you anyway. And we could all maybe go with a little less cheese. And the Fiscal Cliff - sure that could spell disaster if it went on indefinitely. But going over the fiscal cliff will just add urgency to the current budget debate. None of these things will really take hold on the economy for months and by then Boehner and Obama will have no doubt finished their pissing match, just like last year's ski-pole handjobs over the debt ceiling.
But instead people are stockpiling weapons, companies are saying they're afraid to hire, grants aren't being given, so on and so forth yet when you sit down and look at the simple realities, these "cliffs" are little more than concrete abuttments a real man wouldn't even slow his car going over. So what the fuck is this obsession with the end, with doom, with the screeching halt?
Plain and simple, we've had it too good. I mean yes, the school shootings were tragic. But throughout more of human history, children died of disease, were pressed into wars, were raped and murdered during those wars, or simply died as part of being small and less intelligent in a big, harsh world. America has been riding a high crest of comfortable complacency for the last 60 years and now we're left with not just a few people but a whole society wondering 1.) What's left to do when you're number 1 and still dissatisfied? or 2.)How will we deal with our inevitable return to the fold as has afflicted every other great nation before us?
As for the first one, I mean seriously, what's left? Everything has been conquered, everywhere explored. Conquest of other nations isn't allowed. The last big hand was played and we came out on top. That's why we have to turn these skirmishes with illiterate middle-eastern nomads into "wars" - because we can't respectably fight superpowers. So, when it's all been done, discovered, explored, invented, what's left but to die? Especially if you're on a losing end (think mid-western farmer unless they have a bunch of shale) and you're forced to watch geeks and hippies making all the money. Yup - the world's gotta end.
I've said many times before that all the free time people have on their hands has led them to nitpick and find ways to better embrace and express their hatred since for many people hating is quite a hobby, akin to reading groups and militia operations but infinitely more fulfilling in the short-term while soul-crushing over a lifetime. And if you have all this free time to hate, you can find plenty of people and things to point your hatred towards which leads to a desire to see them all destroyed which leads you to think that it would be much easier if the world just ended. Then you find a convenient passage in holy books guaranteeing you that the end of the world will be your VIP pass to God's easy street and BOOM, the end of the world seems like the most exciting thing you've ever heard of.
On the other side of hatred is fear (in fact they're usually interchangeable) and again, with the growth of free time and the ability to hear about all the evil things going on at any given time all over the world (by the way, violence and mayhem are far from new occurrences - in fact, the world is certainly the most peaceful, just, and civilized it's ever been in the history of mankind) fear has turned a large portion of the population into raving paranoiacs. Just watch TAKE SHELTER for a great portrayal of how fear can lead to an obsession more all-consuming and destructive than any drug. You spend so much time and money preparing for this thing you're afraid of so as to assuage it because you feel if you're prepared you won't be afraid. Then you realize that 50 grand you spent on preparing for the apocalypse will make you look pretty stupid if the apocalypse never comes so, in a strange reversal, you find yourself secretly hoping for the one thing of which you were most afraid as it would vindicate you.
Then finally there's the basic point that America is currently on a down cycle of our great empire. We still number 1? In a lot of ways yeah. Surely when it comes to deal brokering and international favor. But that's going away. Most likely China will take us down though the EU, if they emerge from their massive financial problem, could come out meaner and sleeker; then there's South America, calmly plodding along with annual upticks. Either way, with our loss of the #1 seed will come the accompanying trends of being second best, including having to learn a new language, having to embrace other cultures, and watching our children grow up talking about weird eastern myths. As such, plenty of people either consciously or subconsciously just want to see it happen, once and for all - dash the American hegemony on the rocks of complacency; our citizens have grown weak, our industries have crumbled into the ocean, our ingenuity has become little more than remakes of previous products and ideals and we're all a bit more paranoid. Let's just see it fall so we can stop trying to pretend we're better than we are, am I right?
And I don't even want to get into the fact that something's obviously fucked up in the environment (and even those assholes who claim it has nothing to do with human consumption have to admit that the natural world is more fucked up than it's ever been in recorded history).
So what do we do? We here at Man's Ambition were unknowingly echoing the country by pulling back the last 2 weeks (though that was more because of moves and holidays and such) and just waiting for the world to end (not really, this is just an excuse for my own laziness). But that's the strange phenomenon striking the world, people spending time and resources not trying to make the world a better place but preparing for it to fall apart. Folks who are so bored (but unable to kill themselves) and therefore so angry (but channeling it against superficial targets) or who are simply so scared (as is a symptom of the sheep in society) that the end of the world sounds secretly nice to them and as such they can embrace it with far more fervor than the daunting task of trying to actually make it a better, more harmonious place. People who are pushing ambition aside for the simple task of pulling in like a boneless sea-sucker into its shell.
Well newsflash, people. The world didn't end last week. Nor last year. And Hitler wasn't the anti-Christ but simply an asshole who gave in to the easy power of hatred. And Saddam Hussein wasn't the anti-Christ but a power-hungry secularist we backed 30 years ago because Iran was being taken over by Muslims (that's right, America backed Saddam's rise to power because we'd rather have him there than a Muslim). And there aren't more gays in the world, they just don't do it in the shadows and behind their wives' backs anymore. And America's no less religious than it was when we gained our independence (Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, all of them had weak relationships with religion, at best). And the world is no more violent than it's been in any other time in world history. These "crises" coming up mean, at worst, we go back to the way things were in previous American history when people had to work a little harder and spend a little more for American products which in turn kept more money in America and made it so that housewives didn't have the time to be bored and protest TV shows like THE WALKING DEAD. And maybe kids will have to do more chores so they have less time to sit around and brood about how they have no friends (if you're doing yardwork all day, you have no energy left to brood about being socially inept).
But will the world end? Someday, yes. But not today. And most likely not tomorrow. So as we head into luck number 13 in the new millennium, let's all take a step back and come to our senses - we're all stuck here together, for better or worse. It's time to figure out how we're going to live together going forward and stop waiting for things to explode or implode but instead work and campaign tirelessly to achieve greatness in the only way mankind has ever achieved greatness before - by working together with our eyes on the endless horizon of the future.
Yours in Ambitions for a greater tomorrow - which, like it or not, is no doubt coming -
Ryan
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