It was not all that long ago that images of the unshaven hippie-type bearing the banner "The End is Near" would have left us with the compulsion to snicker.
The "Left Behind" series has been put off as low theater of the Christian variety.
The imagery of Revelation is often seen as unsettling, and reduced to the level of propaganda presented to get the uncritical masses to get into line and join the Church.
But recently, science has chimed in on the same theme. Global warming alarmists are bent on positing a date for irreparable damage, 2054 if I'm not mistaken. The latest episode of Cosmos warns us that the environment is a fragile thing that would rage against its inhabitants given the proper circumstances. From time to time, we are alerted of million-mile misses of space objects that would have impacted negatively life as we know it. And, while there is in science voices of calm and assurance, there is an undercurrent that simply "carrying on" will imply necessary life-style changes, a secular form of repent or perish.
I have often wondered if there isn't some form of earth-weariness that society slips into from time to time. Uncertainty in economic factors and political progress leaves one spent and zealous to be done with it all. The end of the world (or Western civilization as we know it) seems to groan and sigh with the surge of advances and reversals in history's little march to somewhere.
If we could be assured this is not a Bataan Death March, we could endure. Unbridled optimism seems to be a slim cure, and sometimes more poison than medicine. We are hell-bent to make the world a better place, but in making strides we fail to move forward. For all our progress, we still would like to know our destination well before hand, and making progress to make more progress later seems like so much wheels spinning in the mud.
Perhaps "The End is Near" is just a hankering for a destination, after all.
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