Apocalyptic Nihilism

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

______________________________________________________________A news foreward


CB
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             The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 18 May 99
                       Vol. 3, Numbers 38 (#266)
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                         APOCALYPTIC NIHILISM
              Chip Berlet (Political Research Associates)
                       net distributed 21 Apr 99

Young men making the passage into adulthood in our society sometimes
act out their anxieties in destructive ways. This is nothing new. Young
men are disproportionately responsible for some categories of
aggressive and violent crimes, including certain types of hate crime.

The murderous shooting spree at a Colorado high school is a tragic
example of this tendency. The horrific level of violence in this and
similar incidents, however, suggests that as we approach the millennial
year 2000, acts of apocalyptic violence may be increasing.

Apocalyptic beliefs, some specifically linked to millennial
expectation, have been involved in several deadly violent
confrontations such as the shootout between federal marshals and the
Weaver family in Idaho, and the conflagration at the Branch Davidian
compound in Texas. This is also the worldview behind some of the most
violent anti-abortion shootings and bombings. The Order of the Solar
Temple imploded with group suicides in Canada, France and Switzerland.
Sometimes groups turn outward, such as the Aum Shinrikyo sect which
exploded with a gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

In its more common and generic usage, the word "apocalypse" has come to
mean the belief in an approaching confrontation, cataclysmic event, or
transformation of epochal proportion, about which a select few have
forewarning so they can make appropriate preparations.

Apocalyptic themes are certainly evident in popular culture where films
such as "Armageddon" and "Apocalypse Now" and the TV series
"Millennium" name the tradition while mainstreaming the ideas. Films
including "Rambo," "Mad Max," "Red Dawn," "Die Hard," "Terminator" and
their sequels reinterpret apocalyptic visions while obscuring their
origins. The "X-Files" film and its related TV series are
quintessential apocalyptic narratives. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
stomps incarnate evil in a weekly TV series. Some violent role-playing
video games put the player, usually a young man, in the center of an
apocalyptic kill-or-be-killed universe.

A particular demonizing interpretation of Biblical prophecy about a
final battle in the End Times provides the historic narrative for these
sensational scripts. What is entertainment for some, however, is
spiritual and political reality for others. Those who believe in a
coming apocalypse might be optimistic about the outcome of the
apocalyptic moment, anticipating a chance for positive transformational
change; or they might be pessimistic, anticipating a doomsday; or they
might anticipate a period of violence or chaos with an uncertain
outcome.

People who expect a showdown between "Us" and "Them," and think that
time is running out, can decide they might as well take preventive
action or seek revenge before it is too late. This type of apocalyptic
thinking has given our society the Salem witch hunts, anti-Catholic and
anti-Masonic hysterias, the Red Scare, and the current fixation by
self-styled patriots and armed militias over a vast New World Order
conspiracy. Christian Identity, the hate-filled religious philosophy of
choice on the far right, is a form of apocalyptic millennialism that
scapegoats Jews, Blacks, and other people of color--just as the
original Nazi movement which celebrated violent confrontation and saw a
thousand year Reich.

Visit a large bookstore and scan the titles in the religion, prophecy,
new age, and occult sections and you will see a cornucopia of books
anticipating the year 2000. Surfing the Web reveals a pulsating
multimedia cacophony of millennial expectation. The topics range from
secular to spiritual and from cataclysmic doom to transcendent rapture
in what academic Michael Barkun has called an "improvisational style"
of millennialism and apocalypticism.

For instance, the HeavenÆs Gate mass suicide in 1997 merged millennial
prophetic visions from the Bible, the prophecies of Nostradamus, and
the literary genre of science fiction. Conspiracist William Cooper
weaves an apocalyptic vision out of historic anti-Semitism and modern
UFO lore. Art BellÆs late-night radio talk show, like many other
similar radio programs, is awash with mutating apocalyptic fears and
conspiratorial rumors, yet some bookstore chains shelved his recent
book in the social science section.

The Trenchcoat Mafia in Colorado seem to have cobbled together an
eclectic worldview that combined  bits and pieces from multiple
apocalyptic genre: youth culture gothic rituals and symbols, violent
computer games, neonazi lore, anarchist musical genre. The result was a
type of apocalyptic nihilism. They acted out their beliefs.

Academic Lee Quinby argues that "Apocalypticism in each of its modes
fuels discord, breeds anxiety or apathy, and sometimes causes panic,"
and that it can occur at the individual, community, national, or
international level. She says that in apocalyptic thinking it is the
"will to absolute power and knowledge that produces its compulsions of
violence, hatred, and oppression."

Add apocalyptic thinking to the nihilism woven through certain musical
styles popular among some youth; and the dysfunctional idea common in
gangs that to be a man one must engage in some type of ritual violence,
and you have the recipe for the Colorado shootings.

We need to understand and confront apocalyptic visions that demonize
and scapegoat others for our own and our society's failures. This is
especially true as we approach the millennium.

                               * * * * *

Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates in
Somerville, MA, is co-writing a book on scapegoating.

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