Masopher's Mind

Now that the movie 2012 is over and done with, here come a few post apocalyptic movies. The first one is vampire apocalypse or Daybreakers. Mankind is now fully addicted to a sweet liquid that improves their lives. Some are trying to resist the urge to use it and some revel in the fact that they can. The liquid is now running out and those that indulge too much are becoming ravenous and desperate. Armies are organized to pillage the third world looking for the last drops of it but the levels are now dangerously low. Fights are breaking out and civil law is decaying as the need for the life giving liquid run out. Oil? No Blood. Matrix meets 28 days later this movie is not, and the actors could consider this one of their lowest points.

The second one is hope apocalypse or The Road. It is a good guy and his son struggling through a post apocalyptic world looking for a better life safe from the bad guys (cannibals). It’s a stark and well acted film but not so much a story as it is a bad situation which the actors must act their way out of. “Are we ever going to be bad guys daddy?” “Are we gonna be good guys no matter what?” Something bad happened and the world fell apart, now nothing grows and everything dies and those left behind scavenge and turn to eating the flesh of others. Violent shakes result from consuming the flesh of your brothers. The film is lonely and frightening until the father dies and the boy discovers that they were never really alone had they learned to trust others.

The third one is knowledge apocalypse or Book of Eli. It features a world wrecked by the last war which, as THE LAST WAR might, used nuclear weapons which tore the Earth’s protective covering off exposing us all to the real terror, the cosmos and harsh rays of the sun. Mankind struggles to put itself back together but find itself missing one key feature, the wisdom of the bible. Other holy books were there but King James’ version of the ordering of the cosmos and right way to live was needed to complete the collection. One faction wanted it to institute control, the other faction just wanted it to pop in amongst the other great tomes. Here too cannibals existed in numbers, but mankind hadn’t managed to obliterate every other creature and had maintained a sense of purpose and cohesion.

The Mayans had a very keen insight on the cosmos. Something is ending in 2012 but it won’t be the end civilization, just the end of a cycle which restarts the very next second.

Mankind doesn’t get off that easy. The Earth, evolution, civilizations even revolutions are long slow and drawn out. Historians and teleological philosophers tend to add convenient start and end points to the progression of time but historians and philosophers don’t have the impediment or facts and reality to consider. Often it is science and pioneers that discover boundaries and the lack of.

The comforting thing about post apocalyptic movies is that we recognize that like the Earth, time isn’t flat. End-of-the-world-ists should have recognized that the roundness of the clock facilitates the time going all the way to twelve and then after that instead of slipping into a magical world, time goes back to one. Even for those that choose to extend the day to 24 hours to avoid confusing 4 in the morning and 4 in the noon, the day alas comes to an end at 24 without apocalyptic repercussions, smoothly transitioning to 01:00 of the next day.

The world is transitioning from one thing to the next though. The empires of Europe and the middle east drifted into history, Japan went from Asian giant to gadget loving post modern, the soviets rose and fell, and the last remaining empire now faces an slow, choking end, coughing on its own exhaust and labouring under a heavy mix of ideologies and idealisms without proportionate leadership. It may or may not bow out gracefully to the rise of an empire of old and out it will go but even this illustrates the cyclical nature of everything.

Europe is a mess of political geographic and social lines that Brussels will take decades to untangle even before it can think about dealing with them. From early 20^th century fascists in Austria, neo Nazis in Berlin, ultra liberal Parisians, British Labour and Tories, Italian proto-dictators, eastern European (former?) communists.

In the United States, though far less socialist minded there still remains several fractures between secessionists in the west(Texas Alaska and California), Liberals on the coasts, Social democrats, Libertarians, Conservatives, militias is Michigan, massive and disenfranchised African American and Latin American populations not to mention the minute population of the original inhabitants that survived the holocaust (starting) 4 centuries ago.

Even in China one learns of a complex set of peoples who are genetic continuations of Arab, Indian, Mongolian and Russian neighbours. The neo-communist clique in Beijing might like us to think that the only differences in the nation are the different ways the regions cook their chicken and noodles but this is less convincing than assertions that Tibet and Taiwan are part of the happy family. So too in the middle east, 7 million embittered Jews and Arabs live unhappily in an area the size of New Jersey, while Sunni, Shia, Turkmen, Persians, Kurds, Balochs, live uneasily united only by the thought that the rest of the world is out to get them for the black liquid they happened to have pitched their tents or daubed together their hovels on.

Why then can the most massive continent on earth be summed up by the phrase “poor, corrupt black people”? In the north of Africa, the Muslim and Maghreb populations are more Arabic than “African”. In Ethiopia, Eretria and Somalia yet another genetic line exists. I can spot an Ethiopian within minutes, their distinctive faces and ears making them stand out more than Obama in the senate. Northern and Southern Nigeria have very different tribes, at each others throats and the massacres in central Africa should be more than enough to convince even the most casual racist that behind all the dark faces there are eyes that see something a bit more than non-white skin.

Even beyond my rant. Significant populations of white and mixed Africans live on the massive body of land. South Africa for starters. It is the least equatorial of the African countries; Scarlett Johannsen, Prince Williams Girlfriend, Richard Dawkins, Sade, 90% of the South African cricket team… white Africans aren’t to hard to find and I don’t think that a Boer who shoots a native for being on “his land” experiences a moment of irony.

The divide I am currently researching is the Maghreb /Aethiopia divide. For those who forgot, Aethiopia is sub-Saharan and southern Africa and the Maghreb is North Africa minus Egypt. Egypt is just Egypt, but it is also Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. To the west of that is: Sudan, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. These countries are predominantly Muslim and strongly influenced and affiliated with Arabic culture.

Below the belt of Saharan sand, former European colonies -many of them Christian –  eek out a different kind of existence.  With Zimbabwean and Bantu roots the various cultures enjoyed a semi isolation from the world of Caesar, Qin, Charlemagne, Ottoman, and other primeval empires. Only after Europeans discovered boats and Arabs started packing them into them for the slave trade did Aethiopians become fully aware that life existed above the harsh sands of the Sahara. And it was harsh indeed, the life that is and the inhabitants of the cradle of civilization learned the hard way to grow up. This part of Africa went through its own hardships and kingships and even some international travel and trade but never sought to amount to much since every man languished in natural wealth and an abundance of mega fauna/flora. Content as well to worship whatever stick or stone they please, conquest ran out of steam and the kind of domination and leaps forward seen in the northern hemisphere.

The African North has been a crossroads, a road, a battlefield, a hideout and a fall back spot for conquesting civilizations. The African South has been a new land, a place to exploit and a sleepy backwater of civilization.  The differences are myriad.

Sans the fanfare and heated debate of the last referendum, the Irish were again asked to press the potentially disastrous button of European federalization. Way under public radar it flew, scarcely a mention in the news until the deed was done. Europe is now that much closer to being a true union. The dreams of Hitler, like the French and English tyrants before him are finally being realized. But what is the form of this chimera? Unlike the visions of dictators and monarchs of the past, there is not a single unquestioned ruler. If anything there are even more questions now that each must look to all and look to others on top of looking to themselves.

The Baltic states which were gobbled up quickly after being regurgitated from Russia’s communist constitution are prime example of how troublesome it is to invite poor relations to live under the same roof. The prolific investment that was poured into that region in the 90’s quickly turned into horrific deficits barely a decade later.
Lisbon is both a desirable and a commendable goal. Coordinating the efforts of former colonial powers so that they themselves don’t become colonies of the United States, China, India or Russia is a smart thing to do. Globalization, once a whisper and a conspiracy is now a roaring fact. Europe must unite or face becoming the next Africa. History already knows of a time when Africa, Asia and the Americas were empires and Europe a fringe group of scuffling technologically backward tribes!

But perhaps beyond that is the teleological ever-present United Earth. With ASEAN, The AU and Mercosur blocs being formed, the 6 inhabited continents face even more pressure to consolidate the artificial lines running through them. Philosophically, intellectually, financially, the groundwork is already laid. United Earth has been seeded and germinated in the collective unconscious and its roots nurtured by popular fiction, travel, technology and increased wealth has started to break down the psychological barriers.

It has started but it is far from done. Countries, people and leaders are parochial and suspicious. Navigating the path between total catastrophe and salvation;  between a backward past and a bright future; between fear and hope is tricky to say the least. Lisbon with all of its flaws represents the attempt by the heads of European countries to put the past differences behind them so that they can avoid marginalization and relegation in an uncertain future.