Question Everything: Is This the End of The World as We Know it? PHIL 1030-005 Lilian Michel

 

Is This the End of The World as We Know It?

INTRODUCTION

    This chapter is comprised of eight articles from The Stone written during or around the time of the COVID 19 Global pandemic. Each article tackles an aspect of this question, whether it discussed nuclear warfare, humanity's impact on the world, or the causes and consequences of the pandemic. Below, I will dissect this question with the articles I felt most intrigued by and outside references that are relevant to the conversation. 

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R.E.M. HAS AN ANSWER

"It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. September 1st, 1987

    Upon reading the title of this chapter, I was reminded of the R.E.M. hit with a similar name. A song that played relentlessly on the Pop Rocks SiriusXM radio station during car rides to school. A song my mother heard when it was first released. A song that is just as if not more recognizable than the band itself. Surprisingly, I had never even seen the music video or really delved into the contents of the song until recently, when unpacking the contents of the chapter. 

   The question proposed by chapter 11 is a timeless debate. The world is constantly changing. War, plague, famine, natural disasters, politics, technological developments- all these things can lead to life altering, culture shifting change. It can seem as though everything you once knew to be true has been flipped on its head. Michael Stipe, the frontman of the band, offers a clear-cut answer to our question in the song title alone. Yes, this is the end of the world as we know it. Further, Stipe adds in parentheses "And I Feel Fine" which reflects his own feelings on the matter.

    Lyrics can be best described as a stream of consciousness. Stipe references public concerns prevalent during his time, such as, the overpopulation fallacy, patriotism, media and religion. The rapid delivery of most of the lyrics symbolizes the overwhelming sense of panic felt at the prospect of apocalypse only to be broken up by the steady paced delivery of the chorus, which is the title repeated over and over. This can be interpreted as saying while what we know to be the world may be changing, the world itself is not lost. Moreover, we as people are not lost despite all the change. This is a much more positive answer to a question that sounds so bleak. 

    The music video offers a different story with a similar message. It shows a young boy, standing in the ruin of what can be assumed to be his house. Himself and his dog are the only ones left. Although it seems he has lost everything, the boy is undeterred. He rummages through his belongings, trying to find remnants of his home, his family and himself. The music video ends on a hopeful visual, the boy, with his skateboard, doing tricks as the camera pans out from the house. 

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THE LAST MAN (1826) AND NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990) : WHAT APOCALYPTIC STORIES HAVE TO SAY

    Mary Shelly, renowned author of Frankenstein, wrote The Last Man (1826), which is one of the earliest post-apocalyptic novels ever published. The plot shares an eerie similarities to the reality of the COVID 19 pandemic. In the book, a devastating health crisis reeked havoc on the world and destroyed its "interconnected economic and political systems." (Hunt 382). This was a direct result of the shortcomings from both leaders and their people on an international scale. Shelly was dead-on in her assumption that a widespread disease would become deeply political. The main character of the novel, Lionel Verney, is hopeful there are other survivors out there and by the end of the book, when it truly seems he is the last, Verney decides to keep on living as though he is not in order to sustain humanity.

 

    Shelly crafted the book during what could easily be considered the darkest moment in her own life. Not only had she lost her husband but three of her children as well within a very short time span. Death is one of humanity's greatest perils. Something we have little understanding or control of. Loosing a loved one, let alone multiple, can make the world feel as though it' ending. Shelly suffered a grave dilemma- could she go on living when all she loved had been lost? This was in essence her end of the world as she knew it. Her response? Surprisingly similar to Stipe. 

 

     Shelly wrote this novel as a way to grapple with her grief and retain what little hope in humanity she had left. The novel concludes with the message that all disasters, regardless of how devastating, is ultimately humanity’s responsibility to look beyond it and seek out problem solving, Shelly believed we should always act on what makes us loving, humane and connected to others. 

    The Night of the Living Dead (1990) by Tom Savini, an adaptation of the original 1968 version, gives us a different answer, one much more nihilistic. The premise of the film is very similar to Shelly's novel and our real world pandemic, an unknown disease is spreading rapidly, causing mass confusion and devastation. In this instance, however, it is causing the dead to come to life. Our man character, Barbara, and her brother are attacked by two reanimated corpses. Barbara flees and ends up in a house in the countryside. This is where the rest of the film takes place, Barbara and others trying to survive the every growing mob of living dead. The film concludes with the majority of our main cast dead, except for Barbara who watches as humanity becomes just depraved as the monsters they were fighting.

 

    Unlike Shelly, Savini shows us humanity at its worst, falling part at the seams. The biggest enemy turns out to be the inability to cooperate amongst the main cast, leading to their unfortunate deaths. in some ways, this film feels more aligned with the pandemic we faced; the mass confusion, endless rumors of what could have been the cause, heated arguments of what and what not to do. Both works offer excellent perspectives that predated our own experience. It is very intriguing how both works could predict such an event on a realistic level.

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HUMAN EXISTENCE

        The roots of the pandemic are messy and have been heatedly debated even to this day. These articles touch on the causes and implications of the pandemic. "Does the Pandemic Have a Purpose?" by Stephen Asma purposes a question we often asked ourselves during the pandemic. It is human nature to want to assign purpose and meaning to everything, especially when it comes to bad experiences. Asma urges us to remember that nature itself acts in its own way, not with care or consideration for humanity. With all the devastation caused by the virus, it is difficult to realize the innate neutrality of the virus. The virus acts on its own and only behaves in order to survive. 

    "Our 'Pursuit of Happiness' Is Killing the Planet" by James Traub discussed how humanity prioritizing our comfort and convince has consequences for the environment. Choosing to go out and disregard the pandemic could lead you to get yourself or someone else sick. Traub compares government mandated quarantine to what if the government had us do things to reduce our carbon footprint such as adjusting your thermostat to better reflect the temperature around you. John Mill advocated for every individual to have freedom of choice and be punished for wrong doings on an individual basis (punishing excessive drinking with reprobation, not prohibition) but he failed to acknowledge how our actions impact others. We are all connected now more than ever, we must be conscious of how our decisions effects ourselves and others. Major changes in the world require both industry and individual change.

    

    "Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?" by Todd May contemplates how the extinction of humanity would impact the world (would it be beneficial or not?). It is a multifaceted question that is not so easily answered. Humanity is destroying the climate, humanity population growth encroaches on ecosystems, farming millions of animals just to be slaughtered. Along with all the harm, humans also bring about irreplaceable good, such as, advanced level of reason and ability to create art.

 

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CONCLUSION

            Was the pandemic the end of the world as we knew it? In many ways, yes. Our world, our society has been forever changed. Yet, the world has not yet ended. It lives on, despite it all. We are in a new era. We will forever experience ends to what we know to be our world until the world ends for good.