Panic Buttons (We‘re all doomed )

There’s nothing some people like more than a bit of doom-saying. Whether it includes four horsemen and a great white throne, or shiny metal robots, everyone, it seems, has a pet Judgement Day scenario. Technically, the ethical/ theological/ philosophical consideration of the end-of-the-world is known as ‘Eschatology’. Of course, the Christians eschatology is well known in the west, but other faiths also have their own eschatologies, including (in no particular order) the Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon and Norse faiths (amongst many others).

But it’s not just eternal damnation we have to collectively worry about; additionally, as the CND feared nuclear annihilation, and previously we were concerned about a great global cooling, now the ecologists fear the melting of the ice caps, astronomers fear stray meteors and Prince Charles fears an army of uncontrollable nano-bots, bless him.

Design in popular culture happily indulges our hyper-paranoia’s. Games, comics, books, music and film especially, with fairly recent blockbuster titles such as Apocalypse, Armageddon, Deep Impact, 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, War of the Worlds and The Day After Tomorrow; the penultimate two being remakes and the last based on climate change. What’s fascinating about these films is their distinction between the James Bond prevention of the end of the world - in these über-disaster films, apocalypse unfolds unabated. Where is the appeal? Is it schadenfreude? Or the entertaining "safe-fear" that we commonly enjoy on a rollercoaster?

Similarly, the media are keen to inform us of any new means by which we might die, be it nuclear (war), chemical (pollution) or biological (bird-flu) or whatever is currently in vogue.

Musicians, from Johnny Cash, to R.E.M. to Muse have a had a shot at interpreting the ‘end of days’ into a tuneful melody. Doom Metal is an emerging sub-genre or rock. Bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor! make music almost entirely about the end of the world, as in the bleak “Dead Flag Blues", which i find particularly creepy:

“the car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
and a dark wind blows

the government is corrupt
and we're on so many drugs
with the radio on and the curtains drawn

we're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
and the machine is bleeding to death

the sun has fallen down
and the billboards are all leering
and the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

it went like this:

the buildings tumbled in on themselves
mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
and pulled out their hair

the skyline was beautiful on fire
all twisted metal stretching upwards
everything washed in a thin orange haze

i said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
these are truly the last days"

you grabbed my hand and we fell into it
like a daydream or a fever

we woke up one morning and fell a little further down -
for sure it's the valley of death

i open up my wallet
and it's full of blood”


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology
http://www.imdb.com/
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=35674
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=360367&in_page_id=1770