End of the World As We Know It?

The May 21 phenomenon is gathering steam. Not long ago the Oakland-based Family Radio founder Harold Camping revised his initial – and failed – prediction of Sept. 6,  1994 as the long-awaited Judgment Day (it didn’t happen that way, in case you’re wondering). He now insists that May 21, 2011 is the actual true and biblically forecast end of the world.

How could he make such a mistake? Apparently, according to a recent report on All Things Considered (aka The Devil’s Radio), he had overlooked great parts of the book of Jeremiah, which turns out to be a quite a significant book. Especially if you’re trying to understand the hidden numerology and symbolism of a 2,000-year-old collection of writings about  oppressive laws of patriarchy, desert kinship cults and mystery religions from the Neolithic. That can't be easy.

The story is that on May 21 – at 6 p.m., though I’m not sure of the time zone – the Lord will call all True Believers into heaven and leave the world full of sinners, who apparently will be living in hell for 5 months until, I don’t know, something even worse happens.

“Six Feet Under,” the wry HBO series about an undertaker family of a few years back, had a terrific opening sequence on this very topic in 2006. Link here or view the video in the gallery.

Hollywood loves this sort of thing: check out Michael Bey’s special effects epic “2012” of a few months ago – clearly a movie ahead of its time – as well as about 400 other movies listed on this website. In particular I recall “The Rapture,” a 1991 film written and directed by Michael Tolkin (who also wrote Robert Altman’s “The Player” and “Deep Impact,” another end-of-the-world sci fi flick.).

The plot concerns the empty life of a telephone operator who cruises for swinger sex at night, until she begins to sense a secret community of true believers who await the end of the world. The movie plays upon the dual meaning of “rapture” – sexual ecstasy and religious transformation – and comes down decidedly on the side of – oops, no spoilers allowed!

Otherwise serious people are said to be buying into this madness (did I say that out loud?).  A nearby Patch editor says that one of his top contributors has refused any assignments with delivery dates after May 21, as he or she apparently doesn’t plan to be able to fulfill them. (Much the same as I tend to shy away from Jan. 1 deadlines, I suppose.)

Strangely, though “The End of the World” has a certain finality to it, May 21 is not the first. Other Judgment Dates include September 1988, when the Rapture didn’t happen as former NASA engineer Edgar Whisenant predicted. In 1914, a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses faced the same disappointment when their appointment with the End  Times came and went without a satisfying catastrophe. Baptist minister William Miller predicted several dates in 1844 as the return of Christ, and once again the Christ failed to make an appearance. (What is it with that Guy, anyway?)

On the other hand, the Comet Kohoutek’s 1973-74 arrival was supposed to signal Doomsday, but all it apparently did was inspire musicians including Sun Ra, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Journey and even REM to record songs. (There were a lot of strange things in the sky in the early 1970s, believe me – just ask Philip K. Dick and Robert Anton Wilson, both of whom experienced alien infiltration about that time.)

Another comet, Hale-Bopp, was the supposed cover for an alien spacecraft in March 1997 according to the Heaven’s Gate UFO religion in San Diego. For them it was: 39 members of the group drank the Kool Aid (actually it was poisoned applesauce and vodka, if you’re into artisan cocktails) and died in a mass suicide, leaving their bodies behind. Still who can say that their souls weren’t lifted up for that celestial journey by that comet-cum-space taxi?

What does it all mean? Like most doomsday scenarios, it means there are a lot of delusional people in the world who will believe almost anything that almost anyone tells them at almost any time. (I don’t mean you, of course – I mean them.) This isn’t exactly stupidity… more like theater, the willing suspension of disbelief. Or maybe the willful acceptance of opinion over fact (e.g.,  Fox News). Or just plain delusion, the firm and unshakeable belief in the reality of the invisible, unknowable, unverifiable, non-material and impossible.

Personally, I suspect that like Salvation, Revelation and Belief itself, The End is a personal matter. At 89 years of age, Harold Camping’s projected date with immortality may not be far off – for him.