I’ve been a huge fan of science-fiction and fantasy all my life. I was a toddler when mankind landed on the Moon, so it was only natural for those of my generation to feel that the conquest of the Universe was well within reach. All those planets waiting to be discovered… Imagine my shock when I heard an authoritative figure I’ve come to respect so much saying that our generation’s appetite for sci-fi is actually a bad omen. A sign we’re actually giving up on this world and seeking salvation on another planet. Psychologically speaking, of course. One of the most important Jungian analysts, Marie Louise von Franz pointed this out in an interview where she was discussing Jung’s deathbed visions of a great catastrophe that would devastate our planet.
That interview dates back to sometime in the 1980s, a time when there was a lot of talk about the nuclear arsenals threatening to destroy our world. I don’t know about the Western world which was behind the Iron Curtain back then, but I have a vague memory from my childhood when the whole city was plastered with posters that read “Say no to neutron bombs!” I have no idea what type of bombs are those, but it shows that the fear of mutual annihilation of the two opposing blocks was real and with it the fear of destroying our planet - hence the need for an escape plan.
On the other hand, I don’t think it was just a thing of the 80s. Last century was marked by two world wars and a devastating economic crisis. The post WWII generations grew up knowing we as a species have the capacity to kill millions of our brothers and sisters. Hiroshima taught us that we had acquired the means to do it in minutes, not the many years the world wars took. This is something you cannot un-know. It’s in our collective psyche by now.
Then we have the post-apocalyptic fiction that came a bit after the golden years of sci-fi. One of my favorite movies in this genre is “The Road” with the guy trying to survive with his kid in a devastated world. I watched that with my daughter and much as I sympathized with the protagonist I couldn’t help thinking I wouldn’t want my kid to survive in that sort of world. Never for one minute did I entertain the notion that a catastrophe of that magnitude was impossible. An apocalypse is as good a scenario as any.
In the interview, von Franz said we may have a chance to avoid the terrible fate Jung saw in his vision. According to her, it was up to us to heal ourselves and bring about a better future, one in which humanity is saved.
Unfortunately, the four decades since the interview have shown no sign of us getting better. As Roger Waters says the Doomsday Clock is slowly creeping its way to the midnight of our final night. We live under the constant threat of a global war. It was narrowly avoided in Ukraine and even if it doesn’t start over Gaza, there’s always next year. There are plenty of boiling points.
Another telling sign of our giving up on this planet is the great number of people who believe certain occult forces might be planning a depopulation event. I am one of them. The idea that someone might want to kill billions, perhaps as part of messianic plan to save the planet, does not shock me at all. I am perfectly willing to believe such a thing. Are you?
The question is do we have it in us to avert a catastrophe? The only power we have is that of our minds. We could battle the Evil in the collective unconscious with the Good in our individual belief that all is not lost. That there is a future in which the earth is not scorched.
In his vision, Jung saw pockets of earth that were not scorched. Since our society is so fucked up, maybe this is the solution. Let it burn and leave it to the survivors to build a better world. According to some, this has already happened, maybe more than once in our ancient history.
If we try hard enough, we might finally get it right.
just pleasantly reading along
...what in the fuck?
It's jarring, but not uncommon in my experience that people sometimes state such views. I think it's because grasping that the alternative to survival is being killed isn't something they have considered. What they actually mean, IMHO, is that they don't want conditions to be so poor for people they love, not that they want their loved ones to be killed by cataclysms.
We are hurtling towards something. We seems trapped currently in a feedback loop that is accelerated incredibly by the speed of communications and the reactionary conditioning of social media.
Consider substantially every world leader has a presence or proxy on Twitter, the entirety of US Congress - reacting and consuming the reactionary imperative. We can not possibly absorb and process the torrent of sentiment and information directed at us each day.
We will likely not destroy ourselves in the next few years - but I would expect some frightening moments, and some regions in the world will certainly experience war and misery beyond what we are seeing today.
That's what I fear, too.
My recollection is that neutron bombs are nuclear weapons that do not create long term radioactivity, but do create a short term burst of lethal radioactivity that eliminates living things from a given region, leaving infrastructure available to be seized by attackers after a short delay.
As for despair, it isn't new, although it's use as a psychological weapon by state actors on a global scale is a new twist. I think this reflects the global conquest of political power ongoing, which depends on populations despairing of the desirability of their extant polities and refusing to defend them from external attacks or even rebelling against them, so that they can be replaced by a global polity, the NWO incipient today.
I believe that despair derives from conceit, arrogance, and hubris, because those lead to false hope, and despair results from the crushing of hope. When we expect little, it is extremely difficult to cause us to despair, to so degrade conditions that folks without high expectations despair of their low expectations. I do not expect to lead a revolution. I am old, my expectations of my survival have in fact long been exceeded already. I cannot envision circumstances that would lead me to despair because I have literally zero expectation of long term felicity, or even survival. My hope for humanity isn't based on my personal felicity whatsoever, but on our posterity.
Only absolute eradication of humanity might cause me to despair, because I am aware that cataclysms happen, and only some people survive them, whom thereafter understand their exigency and proceed to build civil society robust to withstand the hazards they understand. Since I don't expect to be around then to judge their response to calamity, even most of the worst events that are potential remain situations where such hope as I do have remains.
Thanks!
I've lived long enough so whatever happens to the world is for me more of a theoretical concern. However, I cannot expect little for my children. I expect them to have happy and meaningful lives as is their birthright, as this planet belongs to them just as much as it belongs to those that currently control our fate.