The Apocalyptic Mentality

One will find here an elucidation and consideration of apocalypticism’s often covert appeal to certain people regardless of socioeconomic status. This would be different, however, from those who are explicitly millennialists. There are personality types that are regularly attracted to what may be conveniently called the chiliastic, millennialist syndrome as a kind of troubled thinking.

This is a particular analytical discussion of apocalypticism, as a definite mode of distressed thought, pertaining directly to why it can so successfully attract and hold certain kinds of people, from both quite diverse ideological perspectives and sociocultural backgrounds.

This article refers to what will be critically noted as the definable chiliastic, millennialist syndrome that clearly cuts across all ideological, religious, social, etc. barriers and all other societal, cultural, and civilizational divisions that may be possible concerning human beings; thus, no preponderant numbers of such “afflicted” people can ever be found exclusively, e. g., on either the political Left or Right.

Equally, upon examination, it will be found that utopianism and the pursuit of some kind, type, or version of utopia gets itself inextricably wound up, sooner or later, in the millennial vision of any true apocalyptic; this “place” can be either an intramundane destination or, for the theologically inclined, some version of a heaven or paradise not necessarily of this earth. An analytic critique will be here attempted for an extrapolation of highly indicative matters pertaining to what needs to be discussed.

For some useful context, Barack Hussein Obama, as a contemporary egoistic personality type, will be covered in proper terms of analytically attempting to reveal aspects of his personality and character not normally discussed by, e. g., the mass media or academia.

Thoughts and Observations upon Speculative Fantasies

What is the proposition for consideration that is to be explicitly advanced here? Apocalypticism can be found, as an attitude and emotional and psychological commitment, within a wide variety of personality types that yet do necessarily share some specific centrality of cognition; this is as to the full experiential desire to find some certain true meaning in ardently believing that they have special knowledge (gnosis), as to their belief in a cataclysmic finality or culmination, that will then eventually end a sometime future or, perhaps, their own contemporary era.

Options can be kept open, of course, as to just when the final end must come, according to different apocalyptic visions and their interpretations.

Currently, the year 2012, because, e. g., the Mayan calendar ends at that chronological point in time (meaning in accord with the “matching” Gregorian calendar time), now commands much exaggerated attention from the sincerely deluded believers, in what can be called the end-of-the-world mental scenario. And, who can easily guess what will necessarily come next, as to a supposed focal point or chosen fixation for such odd fanaticism, when the whole world does not, in fact, totally end in 2012?

Previously, as is known, many millions had truly focused upon the year 2000 as had been true, for others, in the year 1000, though the earlier Fall of Rome (called the Eternal City), in the 5th century AD, was once thought to be the certainly final termination of everything (or, at the very least, in the Western world). Of course, this may be, perhaps, a valid subject for modern cultural anthropology and cultural sociology as well, since human beings, from both interesting perspectives, are then influenced by such psychological afflictions that do have definite emotional, intellectual, and other human impacts upon society and culture.

One might reasonably assume, perhaps, that people, by the early 21st century, would have become so sophisticated enough to totally avoid thinking about such blatant nonsense, meaning as to any truly presumed predictability; but, the incredibly enormous reading popularity of such literary trash as, e. g., the Da Vinci Code and wildly shocking, titillating books by Hal Lindsey, meaning within the same general genre, do so viciously (and economically) exploit the unfortunate and unneeded fears of literally millions upon millions of troubled human beings; people can be found at either end of the so-called political or ideological spectrum, though, in times of revolutionary transition, they are to be found predominantly on the Left.

Most such readers of this rather sad and highly discreditable stuff are usually thought of as, denounced as, mere Bible belchers [those so desperately seeking Heaven] or worse; however, not all such really cognate fanaticism or extremism is necessarily limited, generally circumscribed, to typically religious people.

This discussed matter is not at all simply isolated to the fringes of Christianity, with its various sects of religious enthusiasts oddly seeking some sort of a radically understood fulfillment of eschatological realizations.

There is also a secularist-humanist “Rapture” thesis, taken in an intramundane sense of presumed salvation, under a different euphemism, as is provided by ideological cognition, modernity’s substitute for religion. People, from a wide variety of perspectives, chose to forever live in Plato’s Cave and think highly of the passing shadows on the walls as if that is truly reality.

Even someone possessing a completely secular mind set, when incorporating apocalypticism, will still axiomatically exhibit the necessarily related desire to seek out the mental creation, in various words and images, of the expected utopia to result from the cataclysmic outcome (as with a “revolution”) thought to be predictable; thus, one sees, for instance, Karl Marx, an intramundane revolutionary supreme, as having had anticipated the workers’ terrene rapture following the catastrophic communist revolution that will, inevitably, bring into an assumed existence the New Eden, the glorified Workers’ Paradise, in this world, not the next, of course.

Man can be made subject to a positive sort of earthly perfection, through his ideological purification, by the assumed thaumaturgy of revolution; dynamic and excessive efforts at the attempted perfectibility of Man do, of course, radically continue into the 21st century. Every supposedly dramatized effort is yet a speculative fantasy conjured up by dreamers, ideologists, and other such assorted cranks and crackpots.

The terrene redemption, for instance, of the oppressed proletarians is supposed to occur in the (ever unknown) future awaited, by each next experiment, in the organized terrorism of a totalitarian regime; and, this too is yet fully eschatological in its nature. Time and again, forever newer attempts are made to magically attain the New Eden, as in, e. g., Venezuela today and, now, in America, through the still currently successful power grab of Obama, a neo-Marxist Fabian Socialist, and the mainly Democratic Party-controlled US Congress.

Some would see the letters of Obama, by removing the b, one a, and adding an e, transformed easily into Omega as he is thought, by many, to be the first postracial, post-American, post-nationalist, post-partisan, etc. president who thoroughly transcends all past normal or typical classifications due to his great charisma; there is the perceived charismatic cult of personality, as with, e. g., Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc., so highly indicative of leftist representatives of ideological expressions of power, meaning within the State apparatus, as to the glorification of the often alleged personification of the revolution itself.

Apocalyptic thoughts enter freely into any political equation about the Anointed One, the Expected One, as he has been publicly called; people do, repeatedly, try to carefully discern the profound depth of his thinking and cognate motivations for urgently trying to destroy America.

Dinesh D'Souza, e. g., sees that Obama has an inherited anticolonialist rage, a marked frenzy, against domination by Western civilization that came from the far leftist/Marxist beliefs of Obama's father and, therefore, one must know that this is what incredibly drives the President, as is thoroughly discussed in D'Souza’s extremely intriguing and fascinating book rather provocatively entitled: The Roots of Obama's Rage.

In the particular context of this present article, moreover, one can, thus, easily add that the apocalyptic mentality, which is surely involved with cognitive and experiential narcissism in Obama’s case needs to be added into any consideration of this warped personality and degenerate character on the world stage; many pundits, commentators, etc. have well noted how quite obviously narcissistic he really is; no doubt about that plainly observed fact, though few people are willing to overtly mention the word evil in connection with his morally vile thinking and related actions, which do serve his tremendous egotism.

Consequently, many people do see truly major signs of an Armageddon perspective, when viewing this enraged representative of the international Left, as possibly also being the antichrist quite ready, willing, and able to eagerly provoke terrible circumstances leading to a worldwide conflagration to then better demolish, obliterate, this nation as the principal agent of Western civilization; with his greatly ugly and vindictive rage, psychotic wrath, guiding the domestic and international policies of this nation, it would then, of course, enormously further the demonic radical efforts of all progressive revolutionism in the world.

One sees, thus, that revolutionism can be done, through either legal or anti-legal processes, depending upon the particular political circumstances to be pragmatically or otherwise dealt with, meaning, thus, by those morally corrupt demagogic elitists, such as Obama, who do seek fulfillment of the ideological goals involved. Of course, it is unfortunate for those who must, as existing contemporaries, live through a historical drama that has been reenacted in past times and, apparently, must be so repeated, in the present, as to the decline of fall of a civilization, in this case, American civilization.

But, nonetheless, proper understanding can yet be engaged in for better interpreting the seeming insanity, involved so intimately with the society and culture of this day and age.

Some new terms, however, may be interestingly needed to be here appropriately minted for so better describing this often perplexing or puzzling phenomenon that has variously afflicted, intrigued, and/or disturbed most of Western society for, seemingly, countless generations. These terms are specially chosen so as to intensify an understanding of the subject, by demonstrating just how convoluted and interrelated ideas and attitudes can be, regarding the human desire to somehow or other know when things will end, meaning a termination time of some kind or other, whether secular-oriented or not.

Those who are particularly motivated to seek out extraordinary explanations of a chiliastic nature for trying to interpret domestic and/or international events or occurrences would seem to manifest what could be rightly called “apocalyptiphilia” in terms of emotionally loving, intensely favoring, or strongly desiring this peculiar set mode of thought.

Such can be thought of in either theological/religious or, as can be guessed, revolutionary terms of reference, meaning as to the particular chosen applicability, by different kinds of people.

Applied meaning is, thus, greatly given to their often troubled or, perhaps, radical lives; moreover, a very convenient, explanatory Philosophers Stone, yielding a dramatic comprehensiveness of a seemingly holistic and synergistic vision exists for the true believers; it guides their innermost concentration of psychical beingness, in intensified existential and phenomenological terms of basic reference; this is transactionally alleged for helping them to then operationally interpret their world and an associated, advanced consciousness of reality, which, for ideologists, can be so perceived as, e. g., Robert Musil’s “second reality.”

Not surprisingly, these people do show an overt “apocalyptimania” in that they must orient either all, most, or, at the least, some really significant part of their psychical capacities and capabilities toward accepting millennialism as a functioning and true guiding principle of their thought processes. As with the easily illustrative example of Marx, his resulting Marxism, an ersatz religion, becomes the all-in-all of totalist understanding and comprehension of all past, present, and future reality, within the broad realm of modernity and its various kinds, types, and degrees of fanaticisms enthralling the minds of millions.

Fanaticism as Psychic Liberation

As a clear manifestation of neo-Pelagianism, nothing fully escapes its, the apocalyptic, grasp of assumed ideological certitude and rapt conviction as is true, e. g., of any of the major monotheistic faiths of the Western or Eastern worlds; the quite numerous and rather astounding parallels of Marxism or Marxism-Leninism as a (substitute) religion have been well dealt with by many others (e. g., Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s writings), so this interesting matter or topic will then not be redundantly covered here. All that is importantly necessary is to just keep this noted point in mind, as a heuristic consideration, besides some already admitted elements of Gnosticism, though, perhaps, better to say neo-Gnosticism.

Many people have, for instance, anthropocentric or theocentric perspectives. Such an aforementioned attitude is necessarily “apocalypticentric” in that, sooner or later, directly or indirectly, either all, most, or, at the least, some truly noteworthy, really significant, part of the true believers’ firm perceptions, observations, opinions, remarks, interpretations, etc. of human, economic, political, spiritual, or other degrees of reality must substantively, in some way, incorporate such chiliastic sentiments, attitudes, or beliefs.

These, in turn, must, as a so direct result, definitely focus or center upon either an earthly or heavenly utopia/paradise that then translationally provides, furthermore, integral justification for the entire belief structure and its simply related commitments to the millennialist spirit, as a manifested will to believe. Often, it can be readily seen in, e. g., the revolutionism of the communist type.

Those persons who may disbelieve or strongly disagree with such an irrational point of view may then, as with the philosophically nominalist analogies, e. g., of homophobia, Islamophobia, or xenophobia, be then characterized as being subject to feelings of “apocalyptiphobia”; this is, of course, by having a supposed “fear” of discussing, learning about, or considering seriously the often many preposterous, absurd, idiotic, outlandish, ridiculous, etc. suppositions or assumptions typically or usually found in all millennialist beliefs, meaning of whatever description or intensity, whether theological, revolutionary, or otherwise simply profane in nature.

The aforesaid apocalyptiphilia, however, acts as a psychological magnet for attracting to their attention books, articles, websites, predictions, etc. that feeds into their non-rational predilections for trying to somehow discern many diverse portents, divinations, auguries, or indications that are basically (or more so) oriented to chiliastic meaning(s). It is, of course, a naturally related means of utilizing fanaticism as a kind of psychic liberation, though personally and even, usually, publicly denying that any such thinking is fanatical or extremist in orientation.

This more and more reinforces necessarily their overt adherence to their apocalyptimania by seemingly substantiating and validating all diverse kinds of reasoning that may be applied to these beliefs; this is, moreover, no matter how objectively illogical they may surely appear to various outside and intelligent observers not fully attuned to the known millennialist mind set and its notably set existential demands and assumptions.

As the years go by, and by once imperceptible degrees, the wide-ranging apocalypticentric intellect is developed, within the true believer, whose constructed “end times” scenario (revolutionary, theological, or otherwise) qua reality comes to then dominantly overshadow the normal world’s non-apocalyptic reality. This refers rather manifestly and empirically to the vast majority of human beings who, thus, never come to accept such cognitive radicalism as being a normal part of human life and the simple living of it in this (fallen) world of (fallen) imperfect creatures.

Not surprisingly, all of this is quite highly contributory to the operational and functional noetic construct said here to be, therefore, fairly descriptive of the fundamental, chiliastic, millennialist syndrome; it is, thus, so critically illustrative of the defining of the apocalyptic mentality, as to its being indicative greatly of both a cognitive and experiential narcissism, as is evidently seen in the life of, e. g., Marx. Any truly complete biography of him marks this odd and misanthropic fellow as having been a genuine narcissist, egoist, who logically exemplified what is being explicitly, overtly, contended in this article.

His solipsistic vision reinforces the detected egoism, revealed convincingly, in his own clearly manifest fanaticism of the belief system so oddly constructed into what exists as the Marxist or Marxist-Leninist ideological edifice. But, modernism, once so bravely dominant, has now been steadily replaced by the major inroads of the nominalist-oriented half of postmodernism.

The postmodernist mind, as it may be influenced by deconstructionist and related rationalizations, turns considerate and reasoned disagreements into the blatant reductionism of supposed (rightwing) phobias; thus, any moral, social, cultural, etc. objections to, e. g., sodomite behavior gets then described and denounced as just always wrongful homophobia; analogously, appropriate attempts, by Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, and other authors, to correctly point out clearly how Muslim terroristic fanaticism must be objectively recognized as originating within actual Islamic beliefs is just denounced as Islamophobia.

Irrational fear is claimed to manifestly exist, as set against the advanced thinking of the cognoscenti and illuminati, the talking classes and their allies, who cleverly defend Weimarization, who champion the destruction and decline of the Western world, meaning traditional values and morality.

It is not ever a rational objection to overt theo-ideological extremism of Islamic radicalism leading to numerous deaths and massive acts of destruction, terrorism, according to the well informed critics of such sane cognition. Thus, this article speaks of apocalyptiphobia as being an absurdity that no rational person can give, meaning ought to render, reasoned assent to as to its often assumed reality.

Dread of the chiliastic, millennialist persuasion can be “logically” said of those who then cannot believe in any apocalyptic vision of the proposed (end-of-days) reality, which illustrates, firmly, the more than just plausible absurdity of all such rather vapid pseudo-psychiatric nonsense; it needs to be so rightly perceived as, therefore, being mere scientistic ratiocination, parading in positivist language, through the echoing, the ideologically inspired repetition of progressivist thoughts, usually done by evidently quite deracinated and degenerate intellectuals with others of their own kind.

Conclusion

Parallel thinking, in recently past historical terms, can be easily cited below, for effective illustration of what needs to be so rightly understood, as to psychiatric evaluations (reason: abuse) of people; one see this done for obvious, reductionistic, ideological reasons by the elitist political liberals/progressives intent upon ever consolidating their heinous lust for more and more power.

This perverse manner of thought, meaning the seeking of a pseudo-scientific therapeutic analysis of dissent, is equally consistent in terms of the direction of modernist ideology; the analytical-interpretive progress of Communism in the (former) Soviet Union had, eventually, applied the supposed neutral language of psychiatry to describe opposition to its totalitarian regime; the rational human desire for freedom or liberty was, therefore, thought to be just a mere mental illness, as a manifestation, in those people who so refused to believe in the progressive and enlightened reality of the (tyrannical) USSR.

But, this line of manifestly perverse thought still has enormous implications and ramifications today, as is seen with the aforementioned pronouncements pertaining to overt denunciations of homophobia, Islamophobia, etc.; it is the bigoted attempt to cut off and avoid any reasoned and rational debate of issues by socio-culturally marginalizing and denigrating, as mentally deficient, those who may disagree with the progressivist ideological agenda of the liberals and leftists.
In the Western world, the elitist technocracy, in an Orwellian fashion, now increasingly gains basic control of the public discourse and, therefore, perverts language to serve the evil needs of ideology disguised as mere sweet and reasonable enlightenment.

As the enlarging technocratic power structures, controlling more and more governments and related establishments/entities, spread out on this planet, moreover, the apocalyptic mentality will crescively become more dominant, unfortunately, as fewer people see that they have any real control over their constantly diminished lives. Cognitive and experiential narcissism, especially due to secularization of the society and culture, will flourish as superstition, occultism, and New Age mysticism adds force to the devaluation of reason as rationalism replaces rationality, as, analogously, scientism replaces science.


Bibliography

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