The solar eclipse of 8th April has come and gone, together with the promise from some Christians that it will signal the levitation of deserving true believers of the faith into heaven. Nobody has come forward to report the inexplicable disappearance of family or friends so we can safely assume that the Rapture didn’t happen… again.
Meanwhile, for the true believers left behind, there is a dawning realization that they are unworthy perennial sinners, they didn’t make the cut. More terrifying for them is the prospect of facing judgement at the Great Tribulation just as they’ve been led to believe. But first, as consistent with the eschatology of familiar and vengeful Gods, they will have to face great hardships, persecution, disasters, famine, war, pain, and suffering.
Pragmatically, unless you live under a rock in absolute isolation, it couldn’t possibly have escaped your attention that the world is already in some deep shit. It has been for a very long time already, and probably got increasingly worse since the emergence of the superpowers since WW2. Great hardships, persecution, disasters, famine, war, and man’s inhumanity to man which is the bane of my existence, is constantly happening everywhere.
The great irony is that the countries experiencing all these calamities, mostly do so at the expense of the superpowers who colonize land, steal and horde their victims’ natural wealth, and then destroy much of what’s left, and yet it is the true believers from these wealthy countries who are clamoring for the end times, not the perennial sufferers.
Currently, in the Middle East, more than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have already been brutally massacred by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), while tens of thousands more are being deliberately starved. The true scale of the massacre is not known as many bodies are still trapped under the rubble of the horrendous bombing on a scale not seen since WW2.
While their homes, schools, universities, churches, mosques, and civic infrastructure in Gaza are being bombed to rubble by the IDF, the Palestinian civilians have not been spared the same fate – 2000 pound American-supplied bombs don’t discriminate. Disturbingly, there are many people, including the US and British governments, who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that genocide, or even war crimes, are being committed, despite the mountains of undeniable evidence. Elsewhere, in countries like Sudan and Myanmar, there are similar scenes of death and destruction.
So, does this mean we are in the (biblical) end times already?
Yes! No! Maybe!
Before you write me off as a deranged sycophant from either the delusional Harold Camping or right-wing Pastor, John Hagee factions, I must assure you that I’m neither deranged or sycophantic, nor do I belong to any self-loathing, ideological cabal, religious or otherwise. I was a staunch atheist for a period of time, although I shun that label now. I am not religious and I have even forsworn the humanist label which sounded chic for a time, preferring to be just empathetic, aware and understanding.
As strange beliefs go, the Rapture has a particularly compelling appeal, notwithstanding the fact that every single one of the multitude of predictions since around AD 66, has failed to come to fruition. Yet, the predictions continue while people slavishly fall for them. There is another Rapture prediction for October this year, and unsurprisingly, more going into the twenty-third century and beyond.
While the Rapture continues to remain a non-event, it does occasionally provide some comic relief.
Harold Camping, the aforementioned radio evangelist, predicted over the years that the Rapture was going to happen on no less than twelve occasions. He kept revising the dates after each failure to launch. He famously published a doomsday book predicting the end of the world, titled 1994, no doubt, styled after Orwell’s 1984. His last well-publicized prediction for May 21, 2011 left many people disposing of worldly possessions in panic, and with egg on their faces when he revised the date to October 21, 2011. I’m not aware of any revision to his book though. He died about two years later, ironically with complications arising from falling down, not rising up.
In a more recent incident, days after the 8th of April solar eclipse, an American woman from Florida, USA, who believed she was about to be Raptured, tipped servers at a restaurant over $1000 for two separate meals a few days apart. She returned after the Rapture failed to materialize, to demand her money back, claiming she was defrauded. It’s a rather depressing indictment of human credulity, that she failed to understand who had really defrauded her. In case you’re wondering, it was neither the restaurant nor the servers.
Now that we’ve gotten the fantasy narrative of the world’s end out of the way, we can focus on what can and probably will cause it.
I hope we can agree that whatever their religious or political beliefs, rational people should only be guided by objective reality, otherwise chaos will ensue. I have observed that Imperialist or Colonialist racism, greed, corruption and moral disengagement are the main perversions afflicting humankind. I also have a very strong suspicion that it’s these undesirable human qualities that will ultimately result in the destruction of civilization as we know it.
Before I get to the crux of the possible cause for the end of the world, I think it’s necessary to explain what moral disengagement is. The simplest definition I could find is:
Moral disengagement refers to the process where an individual or group of people distances themselves from the normal or usual ethical standards of behaviour and then become convinced that new unethical behaviours are justified due often to some perceived extenuating circumstances.
Apparently people or groups go through four stages to become morally disengaged:
- Firstly the individual or group has to mentally reconstruct or tell themselves a story or context where the action or actions being or about to be taken cannot be viewed as being immoral or unethical. This can include recourse to devices like ‘others are doing it’, or ‘it’s not against the law’ for example.
- Secondly they will usually reduce their own sense of importance or agency in their actions. This is usually done by blaming others, the organization, situation or context as the driver or originator of the actions.
- Next they will fail to see or deny the consequences of the actions being undertaken or their inaction
- Lastly they will need to change how they perceive and regard the victim(s) by either downgrading their status, importance or the effect and impact on them.
It is not that difficult to recognize these four stages of the moral disengagement fully developed and blooming in both the Israeli government (including many of its citizens) and the US Biden administration (including Western mainstream media). A morally disengaged person finds it easy to gaslight the public with the ease and regularity as is currently the case. Listening to Biden spokespersons at media briefings trying to convince us that the genocide is actually a minor skirmish and we are ALWAYS deeply mistaken, often leaves me wondering if I’m in the twilight zone. Their standard reply to questions about the latest atrocity committed by the IDF is “we have not made a determination yet,” or “we have referred the allegation to Israel and await their investigation,” which of course rarely happens.
Ironically, racism, greed and corruption, together with the four stages of moral disengagement are in strong evidence right now in the Middle East, which is where the biblical Armageddon is supposed to culminate. However, it will not be the Abrahamic God’s famous wrath that undoes the world, but the capricious behaviour of human beings. It will be the undying, pitiful stupidity, greed, corruption and immorality of our political class.
As mentioned earlier, Israel which is illegally occupying Palestinian land since 1948, is embroiled in a near six-month massacre of the Palestinian people. The International Court of Justice very early on declared their latest attempt at ethnic cleansing, as plausible genocide. This horrendous war crime started a day after October 7th in defense (or more truthfully, in vindictive retaliation) of the Hamas atrocities committed in resistance to colonial settler apartheid. Whether you believe that Hamas are terrorists acting without provocation, or that Israel’s response is not a genocide, is of no consequence, and does not justify the wholesale slaughter of innocent men, women and children who are civilians.
Israel is further conducting this massacre with the full diplomatic and military support of the West, led by imperialist America and its lapdogs, England, France, Germany and Canada (with Australia barking in the background). The impunity which emanates from, and grows daily like a cancer due to complicity by the West, and Israel’s murderous intent is very evident in the daily slaughter which is being live-streamed out of the killing fields of Gaza.
All of this on its own, however, does not make the world end. There is more, disturbingly.
Israel’s demented and rabidly racist far-right government, not satisfied with it’s vengeful decimation of the Palestinian people, but emboldened by the immoral support of the West in flagrant violation of International laws, has decided to widen the conflict in the Middle East. Even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is facing corruption charges, is widely despised by the Israeli population, they overwhelmingly support the IDF retaliation (even if they aren’t fully aware of the true scale of the atrocities being committed due to internal media self-censorship).
The atrocious war crimes being committed have turned most of the world against Israel. Only the immoral West continues to mollycoddle them. Even newspapers inside Israel are calling the destruction of Gaza a catastrophic failure. Netanyahu needs the conflict to go on indefinitely in order to cling onto power. The population will support him while a war is in progress – any war, because it has become essential for the settler colonialists to maintain victim status.
To this end Netanyahu has conducted bombings and assassinations inside neighboring Syria, while engaging the Hezbollah militant group in daily clashes along the Lebanon border in the North. Just recently Israel conducted an unprovoked bombing of Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing several people, including top commanders from the Iranian Military Guard. Iran launched a carefully planned counter-strike against Israel which was meant to demonstrate their ability to reach inside the country.
As planned, the strike caused little to no damage and no deaths because it targeted two air bases away from population centers. Nearly all the missiles and drones launched from Iran were shot down by American, British and Jordanian defenses. However, it did manage to scare some of the civilian population into shitting their pants, and to flee the country, while many others reacquainted themselves with their bomb shelters. It would be cynical to say they are quite accustomed to living in fear, but there is an alternative. The Iranian bomb threat also cost the Israeli economy around $1 billion.
As has now become normal, Israel claimed to be the victim of a heinous, unprovoked attack and demanded revenge, which appears to be their preferred course of action. Correspondingly, the US Biden administration engaged in what has become their characteristic hypocritical response – a lot of theatrical, anguished hand wringing in public declaring their “concern” while secretly expediting more arms deliveries to Israel to continue the genocide. The war hawks in the US – and there are many on both sides of the illusory political divide – are positively salivating at the prospect of a war with Iran. They believe of course that they’ll be safe in their nuclear bunkers. They’re not even ashamed to appear on international television to make their hatred and corruption known.
War means huge profits for everyone from the corrupt politicians, to the military contractors and their corporate overlords. And more jobs for the American public – it’s something they frequently boast about to elicit votes. What a sweet, cozy scheme? The military industrial complex is a phenomenon that’s practically become ubiquitous with seedy American politics. This form of corruption is not some dark conspiracy any more, but something the devious politicians, both liberal and conservative, talk about openly and with pride.
As I write this, news of the Israeli revenge strike on Iran has come through. Initial reports indicate that no major damage or deaths occurred. But it takes just one mistake, just one miscalculation for the nuclear missiles to be let loose…
And that’s how we end the world.
lenny unencumbered 