This past weekend, I came across a video on CNN.com that really stuck with me. The video contained a sequence of a fighter jet being shot down over Benghazi, Libya.
Perhaps it was the lighting of the photo and the smoke casting an ominous haze over the broken city in the background that inspired my feelings of immediate danger, a sense of foreboding, as if I was right there.
I was shaken from my scrutiny by another image, this one of an elderly Japanese woman who had survived the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and must now relive the nightmare as the people of Japan wait in an agonizing anticipation of what will happen with the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
After viewing these images and reading their respective articles, the lyrics to R.E.M.’s hit song, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” were on the tip of my tongue, as if in some mockery of an epiphany.
As media consumers, we are under a constant barrage of conspiracy theories regarding the end of the world. Al Gore never misses an opportunity to remind us that the climate is changing and the year 2012 has been deemed the end of it all — the apocalypse.
Ridding ourselves of those notions and trying to think clearly, what if it’s not the end of the world — just the end of the world as we know it?
Geology 101 teaches us that every feature of the Earth’s surface is a result of some explosion, collision or vast-separation. The land is shaped by rivers and oceans, mountains and islands are formed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Natural disasters have been occurring long before man even walked this earth, but when they take place in areas made vulnerable by man, such as in locations where there are multiple nuclear reactors, oil rigs or some other unforeseen technology, disaster takes on a whole new meaning, shedding its adjectival “natural” and perhaps growing in impact.
What if the metaphorical “cataclysmic disaster” that everyone is waiting for is really just a huge result of some smaller event — an apocalyptic side effect?
We’ve already seen proof of this in the two examples I have provided. Last month, Egyptians successively rallied for the resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. After being so inspired by this, Libya is alive with the spirit of revolution as they call for the demise of the out-of-touch Muammar Gaddafi.
The tsunami that is responsible for most of the damage in Japan is only the unavoidable outcome of an earthquake below the surface of the ocean.
Whether these natural disasters are still “natural” when man-made structures are involved and cause even more damage is up for debate.
Regardless, the earth is consistently in a state of change. Should nature and man’s bad luck keep aligning themselves, it may just be the end of the world as we know it. And it’s only 2011.
Contact Ben with your conspiracy theories by emailing him bkarris@asu.edu
