If, as mythologist Joseph Campbell believed, dreams are individual mythologies and mytholgy collective dreams, what might be the meaning of the post-apocalyptic narrative in our culture?
I recently saw "The Road", a cinematic adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning post-apocalyptic novel. It is, on the gritty surface, the story of a father and son who travel a shattered landscape in search of the coast...metaphoric perhaps for the origin of life...or hope. It is a compelling engagement with humanity's most fundamental existential dilemmas. A witness to brutal cannibalism, the 'boy' attempts to differentiate the good from the bad people while the audience simultaneously questions the limits of 'humanity. Fatigued, hungry and cold, man and boy play a painful game of cat and mouse with the most elemental of creature comforts..shelter, food and safety. Widowed and orphaned respectively, husband and son cleave to each other in order to stave off their painful dislocation from a society leveled by an un-named catastrophe. And together, they question the existence, meaning and intent of God.
The Road is the latest in a long line of such films that spans the genre and includes among many others, 2012, The Terminator Trilogy, The Time Machine, Dr. Strangelove, A Boy and his Dog, Escape from New York, On the Beach and The Omega Man. And of course, cinema is not the only stage upon which civilization's darkest nightmares have been given form. Dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives have come to life in literature, comics,music and on the stage. Collectively, these are stories of the most frightening kind, not only to we, the individual but to us as a people.
Man-made and natural, foretold and unforseeable, partial and total, the end of the world has been delivered to us by fire, ice, nuclear aftermath, cosmic mishap, and alien invasion. Hubris often plays a role in our undoing. More important to me than how and when we will end, is the question of why are we so drawn to tales of doom? What is it about the theme of annhilation that is so compelling? One would think the very real-world threats of financial, nuclear, environmental, political and ideological destruction would be sufficient. Why 'entertain' ourselves with fictional accounts of our demise.
Psychologists may not be able to save the planet from a meteor strike, nuclear armageddon or even from alien invasion; however, we do have something to offer in the face of these manufactured nightmares. Theories! From an existential persepctive, post-apocalyptic narratives and images may be a reminder of the inescapable threats to our fragile sense of safety and security. Psychoanalytically, these haunting creations may represent a means for sublimating (or expressing) our collective 'death wish', or thanatos. Maslow and other humanists postulated that the highest level of human achievement was relationship and self-actualization (a highly western notion), but this could only be accomplished after the fundamentals (food, shelter, safety) were covered. Perhaps these post-apocalyptic tales remind us what is most important in life. Maybe Jung had it right by suggesting that within each one of us, as in the collective, resides the potential for darkness and destructiveness...and these films are simply opportunities for group catharsis.
I'm not sure which of these particular bits of wisdom makes the most sense, if at all or entirely. And I don't believe that I will be in the library or my easy chair clutching my copy of Freud or Jung when the mushrooms start sprouting or the aliens invade..or when the ground beneath my feet opens. I am not sure that I am prepared in any way to even begin to understand the meaning of total annhilation, oblivion and the end of my life, let alone that of humanity. I do hope that if the time comes, that I will reach for those closest to me as well as deep inside of myself for remiders of my humanity.
