Episode 24: The 2012 Phenomenon and the Current Looming Catastrophe
Explicit content warning
07/16/24 • 54 min
This week we spend the first twenty minutes of the show discussing the ramifications of the attempted assassination of former President Trump before diving into a consideration of the apocalyptic 2012 Phenomenon, with special attention paid to the 2009 blockbuster, Roland Emmerich's 2012. At the episode's conclusion we adroitly knit the two halves of the conversation together by thinking about apocalypticism and messianism, and how the hoped for Utopia to be ushered in in the wake of a disaster never materializes in the way that adherents might have hoped.
This episode contains spoilers for the film 2012 as well as for the year 2012.
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
This week we spend the first twenty minutes of the show discussing the ramifications of the attempted assassination of former President Trump before diving into a consideration of the apocalyptic 2012 Phenomenon, with special attention paid to the 2009 blockbuster, Roland Emmerich's 2012. At the episode's conclusion we adroitly knit the two halves of the conversation together by thinking about apocalypticism and messianism, and how the hoped for Utopia to be ushered in in the wake of a disaster never materializes in the way that adherents might have hoped.
This episode contains spoilers for the film 2012 as well as for the year 2012.
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
Previous Episode
Episode 23: Do the Collapse
We follow up on the state of contemporary politics as covered in our last episode before turning back the clock to discuss one of the genuinely apocalyptic periods of the past, namely the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Does the sudden dissolution of several ancient Mediterranean societies have anything to teach us about our current situation? Who were the Sea Peoples, and are they coming back? Should we still live in fear of their return? How does this relate to the Trojan War of Ancient Greek literature? We talk about contemporary scholarly consensus on what caused the Late Bronze Age Collapse, paying specific attention to Eric H. Cline's book, 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed.
This episode contains spoilers for the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
Next Episode
Episode 25: What You Thought Would Be Your Future
This week we are discussing Omar El Akkad's 2017 novel American War, which imagines a civil war in a future America driven by conflict over the continued use of fossil fuels. Charting the lives of the Chestnut family, the book paints a grim picture of the consequences of civil strife, reversing the polarity of past interventions by showing what it might look like if foreign empires began interfering in internal America conflicts in the way that America has so frequently interfered in the affairs of others.
We also continue our coverage of recent developments in the 2024 presidential race, tracking the extent to which we are, or are not, headed towards our own apocalypse.
This episode contains spoilers for American War.
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
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