1. Introduction

If you’re an attentive reader of contemporary books, printed periodicals, and online news media, you’ll probably notice over time a, as it were, familiar set of recurring themes, reflecting upon a disturbing recent event or some political circumstance.

One of those recurring themes is the promise of a catastrophic collapse of national economies, financial markets, and vital devices such as food supply chains or the healthcare system.

Another theme, more abstract but gloomy in a similar fashion, ponders about the incessant decline of culture, morale and social cohesion in the Western World, or even goes into the rabbit hole of biological degeneration of the human race.

Of course, the notion of an impending large-scale global war is always en vogue in popular media.

Off the bat, I can only guess about the impulses behind it. Increasing click-rates or sold copies thru controversial topics seems one of the more obvious reasons.

Selfish attention-seeking for its own sake, or an attempt to promote a political agenda can be reasons just as well.

However, such sorts of simplistic explanations I never found really convincing though they surely have their merits. They always address distasteful elements of the human nature like greed or hunger for power, but they don’t acknowledge the underlying spiritual dimension.

2. The predictions of decline and disintegration

“Certainly it is possible that the advent to power of the masses marks one of the last stages of Western civilization, a complete return to those periods of confused anarchy which seem always destined to precede the birth of every new society.” – Gustave Le Bon 

When one takes the trouble to explore older literature and study some of the classics of the great thinkers and controversial minds of the more recent eras, such as Gustave Le Bon (“The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”), Karl Marx (“The Communist Manifesto”), or H. P. Lovecraft (the complete works), he’ll see that their work is rooted in a pessimistic, even doomsday outlook towards the future.

Popular dystopian novels of the middle and late 20th century strike a similar tone, like “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, or “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury.

The discussion is by no means a modern phenomenon. However, not even the horrible events of recent years, or the entire last century for that matter, proved the grim predictions as to (or the desire for, more about that later) a zombie apocalypse (one half-ironic contemporary term) quite right.

Compiling material for this article has in fact led me to a slightly altered view about the subject.

The actual question arising is, to put it bluntly, whether people want to see the world burn.

After doing little bits of research, I hold two quite different hypotheses as to this interesting question. I’ll try to outline some of the material I came across in the following paragraphs.

2.1. Vengeance

“And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.” – The Gulag Archipelago

Crushing disappointments, rejections, suffering are intrinsic to the human existence. This inherent feature of life has been cast into a spectrum of philosophical theories across most different cultural origins and eras ever since the dawn of writing.

Undoubtedly, there exists (or has to exist) an angry and vengeful side within our human nature that blames the world for pain and suffering, and a spiritual desire for retribution seems just the logical consequence of it.

However, how this inevitable fact of life transcends the spiritual realm of every individual person varies greatly.

People who encounter rejections and hardship from early on in life devoid of essential gratifications, are very often capable of creating stunning pieces of art, literature or technical inventions (you want to look up the biographies of artists such as Vincent van Gogh or Ludwig van Beethoven) what is the way to “get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood”, as George Orwell put it.

Others aren’t able to find a creative and beneficial outlet to sublime their impulses and go down the destructive path. It is of no difficulty to find examples here unfortunately, for there exist far to many of them (you want to look up the biographies of mass murderers such as Nikolay Yezhov or Timothy McVeigh) especially among those groups of people who believe they serve a just political cause.

2.2. Escapism

“He [George Orwell] was more insightful about the distant dangers of Communist thought-control, in the Soviet Union, than the more pressing and durable thought-control of Western consumerism” – Keith Gessen

The 21st century Western society is a world of abundance, unprecedented rises in standards of living and physical safety. The COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s doesn’t contradict this point, yet actually confirms it by all intends and purposes.

The lack of real face-to-face interaction and, by contrast, the levels of comfort and ease of our everyday lives lead one to believe, or rather feel that this can’t be the natural order of things.

Quite recently I came across a film analysis about appeals of modern zombie apocalypse movies, and the argument goes that the reason for the popularity of such movies is, by and large, that many viewers covertly wish for a scenario of this kind to happen.

Covertly I wish for civil society go down the drain in my weaker moments as well, if I am perfectly honest. But I am also perfectly aware that this is pathetic: the benefits of a stable society prevent me from going with black and ruined teeth, being paralyzed by bacteria or freezing to death in unfavorable climate conditions.

People may fancy the idea of the very freedom of a post-apocalyptic world, but only so far as access to material goods and the benefits of the industrialized age are largely maintained.

3. Further thoughts

Predictions about the end of the world have always existed, and they will continue to exist by being reformulated and sold as new insights.

Why has an apocalyptic collapse never occurred is human history, after all, though it has been prophesied since generations of writers? In fact, the world is actually becoming more peaceful by the year as we progress (check out book reference 6 that proves it with statistics).

My short take on it is, that predictions of decline and disintegration may strengthen those very antagonistic forces that prevent the ultimate breakdown of societies, a sort of anti self-fulfilling prophecy if you like.

With a more religious stance one would assert that Good will invariably defeat Evil, and the human spirit will prevail. I would kind of adapt on this, since it is basically the same message.

So, the end of world will not happen anytime soon, particularly not in the shapes which have been predicted. Or have been hoped for covertly.

4. Literature

Novels

1. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Harvill Press; ISBN 13 978-1843430858

2. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks; ISBN 13 978-1451690316

3. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley, Ernst Klett Sprachen; ISBN 13 978-3125798502

Non-fiction

4. Psychologie der Massen (The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind) – Gustave Le Bon, Alfred Kröner Verlag; ISBN 3-520 09915 2

5. Politics and the English Language – George Orwell, Sahara Publisher Books; ISBN 13 978-2491704810

6. The Better Angels of our Nature – Steven Pinker; ISBN 13 978-0141034645