The Apocalypse: As American As Apple Pie

American has a growing love affair with the end of the world. Why this fondness with all things apocalyptical? Novels like "The Road "by Cormac McCarthy and "The Stand" by Stephen King are perennially perched atop a dozen bestseller's List.
Motion picture films like "I Am legend", adapted from Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, and "The Postman" by David Brin have earned more than respectable box office returns. But, more important is the growing success of the genre as a whole (films, literature, fine arts, and even heavy metal and gothic sound tracks). Its mushrooming popularity reveals a dark undercurrent of the American psychic, manifesting an obsession with post-apocalyptic visions. Hollywood has already pulled the trigger on several apocalyptic thrillers aimed at teens and pre-teen audiences.
While significant groundwork was laid during the 1920's and 1930's, the real work was done in the aftermath of War World II. Science fiction writers imagined a planet occupied by alien life forms, or wrote of meteor showers leveling cities and bringing civilization to the brink.
Others world-enders pursued a more religious theme, threading the stories with the ultimate triumph of the forces of God over the forces of the ungodly. Christian fiction writers, borrowing from the Old Testament, wrote of end days as prophesied in the Book of the Revelations. However, early religious fiction was limited to a paltry audience of apocalyptic aficionados and religious extremist. Nonetheless, by the start of the new millennium Left Behind, the blockbuster novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, took the genre mainstream.
Secular visions of the apocalypse would have to wait a little while longer. American popular culture was beginning to embrace the-end-of-world-has-we-know-it.
Once everyone laughed and pointed at the psycho parading the end-is-coming sign, tolling the bell of Armageddon and preaching salvation. Ironically, now, Hollywood is financing those who would warn of impending disaster, and point to the dark omens. And, they do with digitalized high resolution film and surround sound.
The dropping of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and the Arms Race opened the door to the fear that one day the chickens could someday come home to the roost. The very same fear expressed comically in the classic Dr. Strangelove: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb. Bomb shelters, fallout drills and the emergence of the survivalist market was testimony to Americans growing apocalyptic dread. Total destruction became a real possibility for millions of Americans. Nowhere is post-apocalyptic American better depicted than in "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank and in "Canticles of Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller.
But, America's growing infatuation with a domestic brand of Armageddon reached its apex with the 9/11 tragedy. The image of New Yorkers fleeing the crashing towers and the toxic clouds of the death was broadcast over and over until the image was emblazoned indelibly in our minds. America's exalted sense of invincibility came crashing down with the WTC, our feeling of security forever buried in the rubble.
However, there may be other reasons for the growing popularity of doom and gloom. American technological and economic achievements helped her to amass great wealth. The American standard of living is admired and envied the world over. In the history of the world, no society has achieved as much, so quickly.
Yet, no one knows more than Americans the price of that progress. While few Americans would trade their way of life for any other, psychologists have long documented the mounting feelings of alienation, acute anxiety and depression among the working masses. Most Americans at some points have felt like interchangeable cogs living a purposeless life in service of corporate American. Thus, no one knows better the crisis of progress.
This may explain America's perverse fascination with eschatological (what if) scenarios. I am Legend; the mega-budget post-apocalyptic film opens with, Will Smith, motoring through a deserted New York City in a red supercharged Mustang convertible. Later he's patiently stalks his prey, only to have it claimed by a family of lions. Man relegated back to just another hunter, just another creature having to kill to survive.
Strangely enough, as terrifying is the idea of being the last human alive is (not counting the mutated creatures wandering the landscape); the scene conveys a certain feeling of liberation. In the absence of both convention and law, there's only the law of nature. The way life was before the rise of civilization.
And, even in The Road, where a dying man and his young son faced spine-numbing cold, starvation, and a desolate and unforgiving countryside, there was a kind of deliverance, a lifting of the veil. I am not suggesting that Americans long for an end to it all. Yet, the growing genre may offer an exhilarating change, an escape, from the routine drudgery of rat race.
Another reason for the genre's growing popularity is the speculative aspect of the post-apocalyptic themes, artist stretching the limits of their imagination in regard to what is or is not possible. One writer wrote: "Apocalypse is one of those realms where the ideological spectrums bends into a circle and the extremes meet".
These thought experiments erase so-called boundaries, suspend ordinary thinking and incited a new consciousness, transcendent and mystical. Post-apocalyptic fiction "tears everything down, and speculates about how human nature will react". It looks at the psychological, sociological, and physical ramification of living in the aftermath of the apocalypse. Where technology is sparse, and man is striped of his machines.
In the end, post-apocalyptic fiction may offer a "self-defeating prophesy". Maybe its only real value is in its warning to the human race. It may be a means of dodging an apocalyptic event, cheating out self-prescribed fate. A reorganization of perspectives, a global paradigm shift, may be just the thing to turn America from it's (what more and more experts are saying is a) self-destructive course. Perhaps, this apocalyptic faith addresses a long forgotten need to return to our place in nature. And, by that I mean man's harmony with his surroundings, and with respect for creation. If we don't, may God help us all.

America at the Crossroads

I am sorry to burst your bubble, but Barack Obama is no messiah. He cannot single handedly cure the nation's ills. Some people are looking to him to save America. They want him to do what they themselves cannot, or will not. And, that is to steer the great ship of state from its course of business as usual. And, John McCain is the same old Republican Party brand. Paradoxically, he claims to have the answers to many of the problems that his party under President Bush caused in the first place.
Now I've make some pretty harsh accusations. To test the validity of my assertions, we will have probe little deeper. Let's start with what our country needs RIGHT NOW. For one, we need a government that is free of lies, open to change and compassionate.
What do we have now? To start with, look at the way that the America people were deceived about Iraq possessing nuclear weapons, WMD's. Do you remember all the propaganda the poured from the White House, with Condoleezza Rice, Gen. Collin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld leading the crusade? After 911, with some much blame going around, few in Congress would dare challenge the President's call to arms.
The American people went to bed after watching the late night news convinced that Osama was under their bed waiting to cut their throats and Saddam was in the closet with a dirty bomb. Is it any wonder that the campaign to "shock and awe" the Iraqi people faced so little opposition in congress. When the TRUTH finally surfaced, we were knee dig in it. What did the war cost us?
Well, let's see. We had gone from having the sympathy of the world to being the scourge of the civilized world. As a result, we've become estranged from our allies and provided valuable propaganda for Al Qaeda recruitment machine. In addition, the billion dollars a day cost of the war has had a devastating affect on the American economy. Important social programs are being cut, and the American infrastructure continues to crumble, including: education, roads and bridges, water, energy, and transportation. So much for trusting the American government.
Democracy, if not for not of the consent of the people, is tyranny. Presidents have claimed to have the welfare of the American people at heart? However, paying off their debt to special interest supersedes all other priorities. Cast in point. Each presidents since the oil embargo of 1973 has placed the interest of the seven sisters, seven largest American oil companies over the needs of the American people. While oil profits reach record level, the working class takes a beating at the gas pump.
Even a blind man can see that our crude oil dependency results in: the death of thousands of America's son and daughters who are deployed to oil regions, the transfer of trillions of dollars to the Middle East, and the inflation of goods and services across the board. All of which undermine national security while financing the very same terrorists that the government claims to be seeking to destroy.
The third requirement of good government is compassion for its people. In response to that, I have one word for you. Katrina. I will never forget the faces of the tens of thousands abandoned by their government for 5 days to survive the best way they knew how. The president claimed that he was unaware of the crisis. He blamed the head of FEMA for the blunder, who when pressed for an answer by an enraged newswomen said that he had no idea of the horrendous conditions in New Orleans. These were Americans. Where was the same compassion shown to third world nations faced with natural disasters?
Can either candidate change the way Washington does business and provide the American people with what the Constitution says they are entitled to? I think not. In my humble opinion, the American people are going to have to get involved, and fast.
Apathy and rampant disconnect is the real enemy. How long can we use NASCAR, Monday Night Football, and American Idol to escape our responsibilities as citizens?
There dire consequences for our indifference. For example, if we want to lessen our dependency on foreign oil, we have to change our lifestyle. Drilling for more crude is not the answer. America must become energy conscious in a way we never have. In the same way we must become dedicated to transforming our faltering educational institutions, our corrupted financial institutions and outmoded factories.
With China and Japan on the rise and even Russia looking to return to world prominence, the future is now. We as a nation must face the reality that we are at a crossroads. The entire community must get involved in schools on all levels; businesses must provide internships to promising youth, those who are able must donate to charities, those without the finances must donate their time and those with skills must train others.
Make no mistake; our vast wealth will not save us, considering that we are currently thirteen trillion in the red and nearly haft our annual budget is going to service the interest alone. If the future of this nation is to rescued from the shifting sands of economic and technological change, it must begin at the bottom and work it way up, and not the other way around. In the words of John F. Kennedy: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

SECRET OF THE NILE VALLEY (EXCERPT)

“It was in the Sudan where I first came across an astonishing piece of Egyptian folklore swathed in the candor of history. According to the legend, hoards of Hyksos invaders flooded across the breach in the great wall surrounding the city of Memphis. “Hailing their war cries and wheeling their battle-axes, they flooded into the city. Hacking blades and copper tipped arrows cut down the palace guard. The city’s elite garrison was overwhelmed as they rushed to stem the steady flow of Hyksos soldiers into the confines of the temples and palaces. The outer streets of the city were fraught with the Asiatic soldiers, spewing their vile hatred on the defenseless populace. Even those who surrendered were put to the knife. The barbarous invaders showed no mercy. Women were ravished and then murdered; all except those spared in order to carry the seeds of the northern invaders, adding further humiliation to the proud citizens of Egypt When the city was deemed secure, the commander of the conquering army ascended the thrown with 600 nobility knelling before him. Husbands and sons were made to watch while the soldiers violated their women repeatedly. The festival of carnage lasted for several days and nights. When only male prisoners remained, the fathers were made to watch as the drunken soldiers turned their hateful lust upon their sons, sodomizing them with red-hot chewers. When no further death sport was to be had, the high priests were assembled before the commander of the mighty Asian army. Nothing in the sacred temples was disturbed. The high priest weren’t harmed, instead were treated with the highest regard, yet restricted to the temple. Entering the throne room, the high priest of Ra stood before the Hyksos commander. “I demand to known two things. Where is the book and what is has become of the royal family? They weren’t among the other noble houses. “You will not find the book,” the priest canted. “Ah, but, that is where you are wrong, holy one. I know that the book is in your keeping.” The commander started to pace again, stopping before a younger priest. “And, you will render it to me, even if I have to torture every one of you.” Without warning, he drew his sword from the sheath and lopped off the head of the young priest in one fell swoop. “The commander then kicked the head across the temple floor, leaving a trail of blood. “No wonder this dynasty, the Sun king, and the noble houses fell so easily. They are counseled by charlatans and fools.” The high priest didn’t respond to the verbal attack, instead, began reciting an ancient mantra. The other priest joined him. The commander laughed at what he thought to be a feeble scare tactic by his desperate captives. He was about to order more deaths when a deafening reverberation shook the room. A violent wind blew the massive doors off the hinges, as if struck by the hammer of God. Everyone was thrown to the floor and the gargantuan braziers were snuffed out, blanketing the room in darkness. Minutes later the wind subsided and the braziers were relit, but the priests were gone. Only their robes remained.