The State of Society and Sacrifice

When society is stable it is fairly good with little inconvenient bits of evil here and there but, when society is threatened how will people react to their each individual lives being threatened. Humankind is inherently evil because the entire population will fall into anarchy if enough pressure to survive is put upon us. Literature helps us understand this by showing us many ways the end of the world could happen and what those hours before would look like and, what the hours after would look with the people that survive.

Humankind is generally a kind, and stable society, but when threatened by survival some of the truly evil people will show themselves. These people will take advantage of the world’s current situation for their own advantaged. Other people will see these evil people and decide to do the same. This understanding that society and humankind no longer has any moral or civil obligation will quickly lead to anarchy. My sources of these reasons are my reading of The Road, the sociology of how evil people think, and examples of what the apocalypse would look like from literature and mass media.

The Road

The Road is a post apocalyptic book about a father and his son trying to get to the south in hope of finding a warmer place to survive. This journey they are going on is a difficult one faced with many challenges along the way. In the book the father sees his son as some holy being because he is the only light in his life.

“When it was light enough to use the binoculars he glassed the valley below. Everything paling away into the murk. The soft ash blowing in loose swirls over the blacktop. He studied what he could see. The segments of road down there among dead trees. Looking for anything of color. Any movement. Any trace of standing smoke. He lowered the glasses and pulled down the cotton mask from his face and wiped his nose on the back of his wrist and then glassed the country again. Then he just sat there holding the binoculars and watching the ashen daylight congeal over the land. He knew that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.” (McCarthy 4)

If the boy dies then to him there’s no point in living anymore because he has no one. This is why in the book the father gives the son every food and drink before he himself can eat or drink it. He tells the child to have as much as he’d like. Another hope of theirs is that they will find civilization in the south. The names of the two main characters are never revealed because in an apocalyptic world there are no longer any need for formalities. In an apocalyptic world, rules are forgotten because there are no longer any need for rules of the old world.

Sociology of Evil and People

Society has a set of values that people have to follow. Deviation of these laws from normality are seen as evil intentions. Evil can never be destroyed this is discussed in How We Should Respond to “Evil”? by Steven Paulikas.

“At best, this process may supplant the thing we brand evil for a time, but the notion that evil can be “destroyed” is an ethical version of a fool’s errand. We have an opportunity now to reassess the politics of evil and to consider responses to it that would mitigate rather than amplify human suffering.” (69)

Moral rights and reason is what keeps society thinking that they cannot deviate from these set of values. Without the brightness of good, the darkness of evil would lose its general appeal to people. This can be explained by the contrast of things in society. Some examples of this is having luck and unluck, rich and poor, intelligent and unintelligent. Humankind sees these appealing things as advantages which in turn people see the others as disadvantages. People in society that have these disadvantages start to see them as their own misfortune. This misfortune of these people start to make them think of themselves as less of a person than others. They start to resent themselves because they think of these things that were given to them as a misfortune. People’s beliefs are the same as their values and these values are seen as a road to goodness. This idea of evil and religion is discussed in How We Should Respond to “Evil”? by Steven Paulikas.

“For most of Western intellectual history, the study of evil was reserved for theology. From Augustine and Aquinas to Luther and Calvin, Christian thinkers were preoccupied with the “problem of evil,” or the question of how a good God could allow bad to exist in our world. When Immanuel Kant introduced the concept of a radical evil that exists outside the limits of reason and will, the eternal problem of evil was released from the church’s exclusive grasp.” (70)

When, people fail to follow these values and beliefs it is seen as evil. Society has set in certain laws that people have to uphold to and when people deviate from them it is perceived as evil.

The Before and After of the Apocalypse

Many movies, tv shows, and literature have speculated on the topic of the apocalypse. Most of them focus on a group of characters trying to survive in these dangerous conditions. There are many ways the world could end, some shows and movies have zombies, others say it’s going to be a huge war that will kill everyone, other movies say it’s going to be the rapture. Shows like The Walking Dead or movies like Zombieland are about a group of people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. In reality these people wouldn’t last for a few days. Some say that what kills us all is going to be war, wither between humans or other life forms. Movies like War of the Worlds and Dr. Strangelove shows us this.

“Narrator: No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.” (War of the Worlds. 2005)

Some shows and movies are influenced by biblical literature for a way the world is going to end, movies like Left Behind and shows like season 8 of American Horror Story. In Left Behind certain people are left on Earth after missing people with only their clothes and personal belongings being left behind. The people are left wondering what has happen to the others.“Rayford Steele: ‘Irene knew this was coming. The way it happened, how could she know that?”” (Left Behind. 2014). In another scene from Left Behind a woman is talking about the world’s current situation.“Woman in Hospital: “I heard some doctors talking and it’s not just here. It’s all over the world.”” (2014). In the beginning of the 8th season of American Horror Story the beginning of the 1st episode shows the world getting the news of their inevitable death. People start to try and flee the city. This concept is talked about in The Knowledge Chapter The End of the World As We Know It.

“The seemingly obligatory scene in any disaster movie is a panning shot across a broad highway gridlocked with tightly packed vehicles attempting to flee the city. Instances of extreme road rage flare as drivers grow increasingly desperate, before abandoning their cars among the others already littering the shoulders and lanes and joining the droves of people pushing onward on foot. Even without an immediate hazard, any event that disrupts distribution networks or the electrical grid will starve the cities’ voracious appetite for a constant influx of resources and force their inhabitants out in a hungry exodus: mass migrations of urbanite refugees swarming into the surrounding countryside to scavenge for food.” (19)

In season 8 of American Horror Story, the apocalypse is prevented from happening because the antichrist is killed. All is well until another boy, years later is born as the antichrist and, the whole process of the apocalypse is reset. Michael is the antichrist in the show, the show focuses around Michael and how he became this evil person who wants to destroy the world. “How did you think this would end? Prophecy is inevitable. I was always going to win… Miss Supreme.” (Michael. S8.Ep10: Apocalypse Then). Michael was always evil in the show but, he never became truly evil until he knew he was the antichrist and was lead down a path of evil by satan worshipers. In This Is The End the apocalypse happens because of the rapture. “Jay Baruchel: There were people and they were there and they got… sucked up into the sky. James Franco: Sucked up into the sky. Nobody got sucked up in here.” Seth Rogen and his friends are trying to do good deeds, so they can be rapture into heaven. Craig in the movie sacrifices himself to a demon, so he can be raptured. Craig sacrifices himself to save his friends from the demon. In the movie the whole cast is left on Earth because they are seen as evil and not worthy enough to be raptured.

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