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I've been watching TNT's Falling Skies, based on the idea that aliens have attacked Earth, killed most humans, destroyed all major cities, and a rag-tag band of survivors struggling to stay alive as they deal with human-size, bug-like aliens and their elephant-sized battle robots.
Alien from TV show Falling Skies
I got to thinking that in some ways, we're actually facing a reality that has some similarities.
Think mega/multi-national corporations instead of aliens.
Think destruction of communities, of neighborhoods instead of cities.
Think extinction of the ligaments and ties that hold families together.
The attack has not come from explosive weapons. It has come from commercial efforts to commoditize life, to replace citizens of communities with consumers of things and services.
There are a number of people writing about and creating films about this "apocalypse," though they do not call it that. I've interviewed some of them:
Helena Norberg-Hodge; Economics of Happiness
Chris Hedges; Death of the Liberal Class and a Call For Rebellion
Arianna Huffington Third World America
The Abundant Community; John McKnight & Peter Block; Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods
Robert Jensen, on facing an age of collapse, and about his book, ALL MY BONES SHAKE-- seeking a progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice
Naomi Wolf on teapartiers, transpartisanism, End of America Under Obama
Caroline Myss; Dark Times Require Transcendant Responses
I am sometimes accused of stretching a metaphor. That may be the case here.
Dictionaries define apocalypse as the end of the world, or some important ending of some aspect of the world. But wikipedia goes a different route, looking at the etymology of the word:
An Apocalypse (Greek: á¼Ïοκάλ...ÏÎ¹Ï apokálypsis; "lifting of the veil" or "revelation") is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John (Greek á¼Ïοκάλ...ÏÎ¹Ï á¼¸Ïάννο...) is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. By extension, apocalypse can refer to any End Time scenario, or to the end of the world in general.
Apocalypse depicted in Christian Orthodox traditional fresco scenes in Osogovo Monastery, Republic of Macedonia (from Wikipedia)
In this latest apocalyptic TV show, Falling Skies, produced, by the way with the participation of Steven Spielberg's and Dreamworks operations, the aliens put some kind of bio-control thing on the backs of children they enslave and control the thoughts of. The few remaining "free" humans must kidnap these children, then surgically remove the bio-control things, which look like giant Helgramites.
flickr image By Kevin Matteson
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