Apocalypse Now & Then
Back in March, one of my most amazing students asked me if it’s the end of the world and….this got me thinking. As ever, America Magazine gave me a place to put it. Here it is. Please read it before proceeding further.
I think it still holds up, even as some parts feel a little naive now. I’ve kept right on speaking of arrangements, whether I’m referring to the federal response to our pandemic or Michael W. Smith’s relationship with Governor Bill Lee or the economy. It’s been clarifying. I think I’ve grossly underestimated the deferential fear of many who successfully fashion themselves as leaders. I also misread the heights of wishful thinking that has dictated the behavior of millions of Americans as well as those with the power and resources to make difficult decisions which might prove unpopular in the short-run but which would have saved (and would still save) lives and livelihoods across the country. This is why I owe Jonathan and Christopher Nolan an apology.
In 2014, they gave us a film called Interstellar which featured (Spoiler Alert)………..one of the most infuriatingly selfish characters ever portrayed in the earth’s long chronicle. Played by Matt Damon, Dr. Hugh Mann (Can you believe the name?) knows the score. He’s “the best of us,” according to those who know him and his work. Nevertheless, his own fear of death (or, more specifically, his fear of dying alone) overcomes his sense of moral decency repeatedly and compels him toward acts of catastrophic denial which jeopardize, at least three times, the hope of a human future. It’s ridiculous, it’s hard to watch, and, when I saw the film six years ago, I confess I found it unconvincing. This was short-sighted of me. I don’t think characters like Hugh Mann are all that common, but there are more people prone toward his patterns of habitual and wordy denial than I realized. Many of them exercise power over the lives of the people of Tennessee. Some talk God for a living. It’s a sight to behold. In truth, it’s a sight I often behold in the mirror.
Good news. I was resistant to the moral instruction on offer in Interstellar. But, God help me, no longer. As we’re invited to do while beholding the historical drama played out in the Chernobyl series, we get to see ourselves in the human beings whose tendency to succumb to deferential fear and defensive optimism in the face of difficult data has proven so costly. We can see the parallels in today’s news cycles and choose to process information as righteously and, if necessary, as repentantly as we can, instead of waving away moral realizations that don’t flatter us or our preferred politicians. We get to reflect on our own arrangements, our strange negotiations, as Dave Bazan puts it, and consider what needs to change and how. We continue to witness the collapse of many an unjust arrangement. May we have the bravery, the wit, and the energy to see, discern, and commit to better ones in the year to come.