For all of history we have thought we lived at the end of days. Probably the constant surprise and wonder at the exquisite beauty and tragedy of our existence got to us after a while and it just became ingrained in our DNA: It can’t get any better than this. -- In our thinking, that tends to inform both the good times and the bad times. When things are good we think, It couldn’t possibly get any better than this! And we’re discouraged we doubt, Things are never going to get better.
So I guess at some point we just started believing it: Things can’t possibly get any better/worse so this must be, The end of all things!
Maybe it’s our nature to live at the very brink of existence and non-existence. To gaze deep into heart of the abyss, to stare straight into the face of annihilation and wonder how close we could get. Our lives are short, and maybe without the urgency of thinking how soon those we love we might cease to be, we would we would have no thought for how we live at all. What sting has death save that of wasted opportunity?
End-Game Thinking
What if that fear is not real? We don’t assume that the road ends just because we can’t see around the bend. Because if all of us will die, why should we believe the world goes on forever?
What if it’s just a misinterpretation of that drive to live at the leading edge of human development? All we can see is our cultural memory and the world we have built. We don’t know what’s coming next, but it’s silly to believe nothing is. We’ve been wrong every generation for thousands of years; why should be be right this time?
And while that may occasion the motivation to work some good in the world before one passes on, there are some negative side-effects of what I call “end-game thinking.”
How does “end-game thinking” affect the manner in which we engage with with life? With others? With nature? How does “end-game thinking” affect the meaning we create in the world? Our motivations? Our belief?
For every example I can think of, looking for an end game only creates excuses for lowering one’s expectations in themselves and in others. If the end is near, what’s the benefit in creating stable political/environmental/social solutions? A messiah doesn’t come to clean up your mess; a messiah comes to show you how to live and create a new world. The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst. (Luke 17:20-21)
We Are Not At War
Worst of all, this thinking tells us we are at war. War between those who wish to usher in this new age, and the people they don’t want to be around for all of eternity.
We are not at war with one another. How can a body be at war with itself? Cancer, maybe. HIV. Can we really characterize our existential condition as the terminal illness of the soul?
There is nobody out there to be at war with; it’s just us down here. We need to live together, to have care for each other. To take seriously the responsibility of managing a world that has to last far beyond the future we can foresee.
But what, then, is that urgency? The imminent unknown?
An End . . . Or a New Beginning?
It is our future: unwritten. It is our evolutionary trajectory; it is a developmental path that we choose. A person can’t just evolve into a doctor or a businessman; one chooses a path that leads to that end.
So if we are anticipating the end of the world, we’re going to live like the world is going to end, and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if we are anticipating a future in which we continue to advance beyond all imagination, then we will constantly demand our highest potential.
And that’s really what we’re feeling when we feel like the world is going to end. We feel an urgency, we feel like we’re at the brink, and we see the bend in the road but not beyond. We feel the arising of something demanding; call it god or a homing instinct, it’s our own. And it demands nothing less than our fullest engagement with the world in order to create the human destiny. That demands a very different sort of life. It demands ethics, it demands responsibility. It demands that we expect more of ourselves and of each other.
And the promise of that is the new world that will arise in the wake of living each day like it’s our first. And you know -- maybe we die and the world ends and we’re brought before the bar of justice. Is god going to deal harshly with us for squandering our “talents” or for using them to build a better world? Didn’t Jesus teach about a dozen parables about exactly this?
On the other hand, maybe the wheel of life rolls around and we’re born fresh into the world we’ve just inherited from . . . ourselves.
So we feel this urgency, and we need to start taking it seriously; not just thinking it’s going to go away if we ignore it. What sting has death save that of wasted opportunity? No, there’s no war going on outside. It’s all inside. Do we accept the higher demands of our better nature, or do we count down the clock and let loose the dogs of war?
