Simulpocalypse #3- Why is the Post-Apocalyptic scenario so popular?
Why have there been so many novels, TV shows, movies, and video games about, or set in, a post-apocalyptic world?
An apocalyptic-looking sunrise over the Universal City area, in the San Fernando Valley, just over the hill from Hollywood. Nothing crazy going on here, I didn’t add affects to this photo, the sunrise just looked really, really weird that day. It just looked like something crazy was about to go down, and had that apocalyptic feel. #steveemigphotos
Simulpocalypse- (SIGH-mo-pock-a-lips) This is a word I coined to describe how we have a growing number of abandoned and post-apocalyptic-looking locations and regions in the U.S., while normal, everyday society goes on simultaneously.
Working on the first two posts in this series, I looked through a bunch of clips of movies from my childhood that showed a dystopian or post-apocalyptic world. But none of the movies I mentioned are what I remember really showing that idea to me, as a kid, in the 1970’s. On one hand we lived under the continuous threat of all out nuclear war with the Soviet Union (Russia and the now independent states, before 1989). We had regular nuclear drills in school, where we had to get on our hands and knees under our little school desks. We did those to prepare for a possible nuclear bomb explosion in our town. Back then, I had a sense of what a post-apocalyptic world would be like, but I couldn’t remember where it came from.
This morning , I figured it out. It wasn’t movies like the original Planet of the Apes (1968), Damnation Alley (1977), or Mad Max: The Road Warrior (1981), where I, and other kids of that era, saw what a post-apocalyptic world might look like. It was a couple of TV shows in the mid-1970’s that really left an impression on me. One was Ark II, beginning in 1976. The other was the Logan’s Run TV show (1977-1978), which followed an earlier, 1976 Logan’s Run movie.
These shows were on Saturday mornings, if I remember correctly, following cartoons. I saw most of the episodes of both of these shows. While neither one showed the world after a nuclear apocalypse, both showed a future, wasteland-type world, with people driving really cool vehicles around in it. These were the shows that really gave me, and many kids my age, a sense that civilization probably would collapse, at some point, what it might be like, and that there would be people wandering around after it collapsed.
By definition, a post-apocalyptic scenario means that most of the people on Earth, or at least in a region, have died in some way. That’s a horrific thing to imagine, yet we’ve seen it in the media for literally thousands of years. There are hundreds of stories about one kind of apocalypse or another, and dozens of stories about people living in imagined post-apocalyptic worlds. The story of “Noah and the Flood,” in the Bible is an apocalyptic story, so is the similar Epic of Gilgamesh, from ancient Sumeria, which is even older. That’s why I ask this question, why are humans so fascinated with apocalyptic stories and post-apocalyptic worlds ?
I referred to this as the “Bag Car,” and I saw this guy and this car often back in 2020 and 2021. This guy lived in his car, and had bags tied all over it to carry his extra stuff. San Fernando Valley, CA, back in 2021. #steveemigphotos
Why do so many people find post-apocalyptic scenarios so appealing that writers and directors keep making books and movies about them? Let’s face it, when we see these movies, we all think that somehow we would be one of the small number of people who survive whatever horrific events brought civilization to an end. Then comes the challenge of surviving in whatever world is left. There are a number of reasons people might fantasize about living in that kind of world.
The first thing about a post-apocalyptic world is that civilization is gone, which means the old laws and rules are gone. That’s the obvious reason people imagine that kind of world. There are no other people, there are no rules, you can do whatever the fuck you want. Who hasn’t fantasized about some form of that scenario. This trailer from The Last Man on Earth, the 2015 TV show, is a funny, example of that. What would an average man or woman do if they woke up and everybody else was gone? This is one example.
This is not a new idea, not even close. Mary Shelley, best known for creating the horror novel genre with the book Frankenstein, in 1818, also wrote a futuristic, apocalyptic novel called The Last Man, in 1826. How do you live in a world where everyone else is gone? What do you do in that world? That’s a great concept to both write and fantasize about.
Perhaps the best part of a post-apocalyptic world is that you wouldn’t have a job. No work. No more alarm clocks or 4 am texts from a frantic boss. No more paperwork. No more taxes to pay. Of course you would have to find food, shelter, avoid whatever wild animals still exist, and start purifying your water, so you wouldn’t die of dysentery. There would still be a lot of things to do. But no job. That’s a plus in most people’s minds.
Another appealing part of a post-apocalyptic world is that all social norms would be gone. While most people would shy away from saying it out loud, a post-apocalyptic world would bring complete sexual freedom, along with other kinds of personal freedom, limited only by whomever else is left alive. Everyone has their kinks and freaky fantasies, and a world after civilization make that side of human nature fully open to explore, depending on other people being left alive, with similar interests. You could cut or dye your hair any way you want. You could dress or undress to match your mood and the weather. You could indulge in a whole array of normally frowned upon behaviors that are not considered proper in regular human society.
Yet another aspect of a post-apocalyptic world is that ownership, money, and wealth would no longer exist in a regulated, organized form. You would “own” everything that’s left, the houses, cars, all the non-perishable food in the grocery stores, everything. At least until some other survivor wants to fight you for it. Think about how many items are in a grocery store, or the local storage unit business, once you find bolt cutters to cut the locks on all the units. Think about all the furniture in furniture stores, not to mention all the cars and trucks you could drive, until you run out of gas. Think of all the varieties of alcohol in your local liquor store. Suddenly, it would all be yours. What would you go collect first? The downside for some people would be that there would be no one else around to be impressed by your 97 cars and trucks, and all that jewelry.
Yes, this is a guy using a shopping cart to help him get into a donation box to find stuff to steal. Really. San Fernando Valley, CA, 2021. #steveemigphotos
In addition to all of those things, in a post-apocalyptic scenario, you’re free to wander and explore, limited only by food, water, and whatever transportation limits there are. Looking at these stories, TV shows, and movies, they often cheat, and have some kind of really cool, futuristic vehicles and food sources, that go on long after they really should. Wandering around the post-apocalyptic world is a main theme of many of these TV shows, movies, and particularly video games. From a writer’s perspective, there are hundreds of possible adventures for the hero of a story to stumble into, in a post-apocalyptic world. The same is true of someone just imagining that kind of world for fun.
The reality of a post-apocalyptic world would be intense loneliness, constant worry about wild animals and crazy people who may also have survived. Most modern people who did survive the initial calamity would probably wind up dying before too long from bad food, bad water, or some obscure injury. Remember, no other people means no doctors or emergency rooms, along with every other modern service.
Somehow as horrific as a real world post-apocalyptic scenario would be, the idea and fantasies about the scenario have led to hundreds of books, TV episodes, and movies about apocalyptic survivors. These started back in ancient Sumeria and the Holy Lands, and they continue to this day.
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