the end of the world

It’s the end of the world as we know it—again

"A History of the End of the World" by Jonathan Kirsch (Harper San Francisco; $25.95) 

To true believers, North Korea's recent nuclear test was just the latest in a series of signs that the end-time is near. In Jonathan Kirsch's compelling new book, "A History of the End of the World," he points out that false prophets and "numbers crunchers" have been calling for Armageddon for 2,000 years, despite the fact that the reputed author of the Book of Revelation, John, son of Zebedee, "teaches his readers and hearers to do nothing about the evil that surrounds them except to keep the faith and keep quiet."

Apparently, ours is not the only historically challenged era, because over the last two millennia, everyone from Savonarola to Jonathan Edwards to Billy Graham and David Koresh has forgotten the past and has offered new predictions about the end-times. They've all been wrong. Still, each new generation brings a new seer or two and a new list of seemingly prophetic calamities like the Black Death, the Crusades, the Civil War, World War I (dubbed the "war to end all wars," a clear reference to Armageddon), World War II and now the War on Terror, all of which are supposed to foretell the apocalypse.

Yet Jesus, who some believe wrote Revelation, specifies in the Gospels that no one, not even he, will ever know when the world will end. Only God knows, apparently. And the final battle will take place not on Earth, but in Heaven, one clear indication that the Book of Revelation has been misread throughout history.

Kirsch, who has written 10 books, including five previous ones on the Bible, did prodigious research for his latest tome. He purchased obscure, out-of-print texts and took 1,000 pages of single-space notes. For Kirsch, a book critic and lawyer, who represents The Jewish Journal on a pro bono basis, reading and writing flow through his DNA. For 30 years, his father wrote six book reviews a week for the L.A. Times, a mere fraction of the 20 books he read each week. Kirsch's own son is also a book reviewer, and his daughter an accomplished reader.

Like literary critic Harold Bloom, author of "The Book of J," Kirsch has not only made a valiant effort at conquering the Western canon through voluminous reading (he has pored through the ancient works of Josephus and Augustine, the sermons of Cotton Mather and other Puritans, and "medieval bestsellers," to list just a few examples), he has also had a long-held interest in the authorship of the Bible.

Where Bloom speculated in "The Book of J" that the J writer, whose lyrical Torah passages feature a distinctive anthropomorphic God, was a woman, Kirsch suggests that the author of the Book of Revelation was not simply a man but a Jewish one at that.

Revelation, as Kirsch shows in his book, is infused with Jewish messianic tropes, such as the constant use of the totemic number seven, a figure of great significance to Jews going back to Genesis. Moreover, Revelation contains almost no references to the Trinity, Communion or the "love thy neighbor" ethos of the Christian Bible. Instead, it presents Jesus as a violent and sanguinary warrior, whose vengefulness calls to mind a monstrous version of the Torah's God.

Revelation's author, a killjoy in extremis, has a hatred for human sexuality, particularly that of women. That has not stopped women from being some of the most renowned interpreters of the scripture. Many of these mystics and visionary nuns, like Na Prous Boneta and Marguerite Porete, were burned at the stake during the Inquisition.

But women alone are not doomed. The only men certain of being saved are the 144,000 ones "who have not defiled themselves with women," which means that Mel Gibson will have to find another way to heaven. Gibson may indeed have more to worry about than Jews. Referring to Amos' apocalyptic writings in the Torah, Kirsch writes, "The prophet Amos, quite unlike the author of Revelation, does not predict that God will destroy and replace it with a celestial paradise in the clouds. Rather, as Amos sees it, God will spare the Israelites who have remained faithful to the divine law, and he will grant them nothing more exalted than a good life in the here and now."

Although Kirsch does not deny the bloodthirsty nature of Revelation, he notes that many readers have interpreted it as having a happy ending. There are true believers who anticipate the Rapture as the greatest day of their lives, and some fundamentalists over the years have decided to do good deeds by ending slavery and helping the poor. A few millennial cults have even conducted themselves with more than a degree of postmodern whimsy, like the House of David, a sect famous for its long beards and barnstorming baseball games.

Unfortunately, for every relatively benign outfit like the House of David, there have been multiple Branch Davidians, willing to kill themselves and others as a final act. And for every Jimmy Carter, a humane born-again, there have been more than a few charlatans among Christians and Jews, participating in what The New Republic's Leon Wieseltier calls a "grim comedy of mutual condescension."

As Kirsch says, "They gain political advantage by betraying themselves and playing cynically on someone else's values." 

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2014- The End of the World Again?

The Shakers believed the world would end in 1792 (so why have kids?). People affiliated with various religions have predicted the end of the world many times. The latest end of the world prediction focuses on December 21, 2012, based on the Mayan calendar.

End of the world predicitons trigger fear, skepticism, and debate. In health care we have our own “end of the world” scenario for 2014: the federal health care reform calendar brings mandated health care exchange system implementation. Various authors and experts identify doomsday scenarios that frankly seem plausible: employers may drop employees from employer funded health care coverage; states may or may not participate in the health care insurance exchange system; contrarians hope that litigation or politics will kill or modify healthcare reform. 2014 is certainly triggering interest, fear, skepticism, and debate. And that’s interesting (but probably not interesting enough to trigger a disaster movie with colossal special effects like “2012″ released in 2009).

The next two years will yield interesting challenges as we all ponder whether US healthcare reform will survive legal challenges, become broadly implemented, overwhelm health care providers with demand in excess of capacity, and/or lack sufficient resources to fund mandates. With Medicare reimbursements scheduled to drop, and health care insurance reimbursements unlikely to increase, we are entering into a period of ongoing uncertainty as to how or where US health care will evolve. Since US employer funding of employee health care significantly contributed to the development of insurance-based medical services delivery, the advent of US employers lawfully dropping employee health care coverage seems cataclysmic.

Meanwhile, there is still a growing quiet revolution in US preventative medical care as private or fee-based primary care interest continues to surge. Whether framed as “concierge” or “boutique” or “private” the concept is relatively straightforward: patients pay something out-of-pocket toward preventative medical care that exceeds what Medicare or health care insurance can or will deliver.

With 2014 on the horizon, will private medicine grow, or stagnate? Fear of the unknown is likely to contribute to an increase in private medicine subscription. Why? Government seems to lack sufficient revenues/resources. Insurance seems unwilling to fund. Employers seem to struggle with containing health costs. That leaves patients to fund patient preventative care in excess of what plans provide. So as 2014 approaches on the federal health care calendar (assuming the world exists after 2012), many will seek private medicine solutions now to avoid what they fear US medicine may look like in the next two years.

Werner Herzog On His Latest ‘Encounters,’ Roger Ebert and Love

Photo credit: Discovery Films

When Werner Herzog is onto something, his films are transcendent- and that’s not a word that I am typically comfortable using to describe films. The director (and writer, producer, actor) has recently given the world ‘Grizzly Man’ and ‘The White Diamond’- documentaries that are defiant, brave and driven by Herzog’s precision of insight (he often provides narration on his films). But let’s be fair- Herzog is an artist (though he refuses that title), and artists make experiments. Sometimes those end up like his pseudo-documentary ‘The Wild Blue Yonder’ which was an unendurable affair. Hit or miss, Werner Herzog is earnest brilliance.

His latest documentary is ‘Encounters at the End of the World,’ which was shot on location in Antarctica (Herzog is the only feature-film director who has shot films on all seven continents). ’Encounters’ follows the lives of 1,000 full-time residents while photographing the alien landscape of Antarctica. In a recent interview, he expanded on his choice to dedicate the film to critic Roger Ebert, and also talked about the experience of filming in that desolate place. His words make me smile.

On his film’s narration, analysis and love:

Q: With your nonfiction films, was there a point when you decided that having that running commentary in your voice, whether you were in the film or not, was the best way to handle the subjects that you were tackling? Not just showing them without commentary or narration, but providing a sort of analytical perspective?

WH: Well, it came very naturally. I don’t know how I started to do it, but it’s a fact now, and I enjoy it. I write good commentaries, and I speak them well.

Q: Yes, you do. That’s true. And, you go beyond just the facts to provide a great deal of analysis into how what we’re seeing is a reflection of the human condition or someone’s struggle against or to work with nature. That seems to be something that’s coming up a lot recently.

WH: Yes, but you should be careful with the term ‘analysis’. I’m not a very analytical person. For example, in ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, it is much more significant with what amount of humor I’m seeing events down there and the kind of warmth.

There’s one significant moment early in the film where a man who drives a Caterpillar, who actually studied philosophy. And, he speaks very beautifully about his childhood and how he became curious because his grandmother had read The Odyssey and the Argonauts to him, and he says one thing that struck me really deeply. He says, “I fell in love with the world.” And, I thought, my goodness, yes, that’s all what I have done all my life, the films, because I’ve been around a lot in many countries. It’s because I fell in love with the world, and somehow, this Antarctic film, ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, is exactly that.

And, it’s not so much analytical, you see. When you are loving a woman, you are not analytical with her. You just love her, period. And, it reflects a mood that I’ve had in quite many films before.

On dedicating ‘Encounters’ to film critic Roger Ebert:

Q: Why did you dedicate the new film to Roger Ebert?

WH: Because he’s such a wonderful soldier of cinema, and, you know, he’s so deeply afflicted with illness, and he’s struggling and cannot speak anymore, and he’s still watching movies, still writing about movies. It’s just wonderful. And, he has been very good to me, a very great, encouraging person for me throughout my career as a filmmaker.

So, and I said to him, “Roger, this is coming at you. I’m going to dedicate the film to you. And, you know what, because it’s dedicated to you, you cannot write or review any more about it.” [laughs]

Q: Which, of course, he did already.

WH: No, he didn’t write a review. He wrote a letter to me.

Q: Okay, that’s what it was. I’ve seen that.

WH: Yes, he wrote this letter, and it was only for me. And, I didn’t tell anyone. But, Roger chose to publish this letter three months later. On the Internet, you can find it on his web site. He was really talking very kindly about ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD and about my films in general. I love him. I truly love the man. He’s such a…there are hardly any great, good soldiers of cinema left. He’s one.

Herzog was shot by a pellet gun during an interview about the controversial film ‘Grizzly Man.’ Check out his nonchalant reaction as well as the reaction of the reporter:

End of the world discount!

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See you in hell!

The Only End of the World Soundtrack You Need

The Only End of the World Soundtrack You Need

For lack of any good online end of the world soundtracks, I decided to post my own. About seven years ago I compiled an end of the world soundtrack at a time when my own personal life felt like the end of my world was coming. Here is the result. I titled it "The Only End of the World Soundtrack You Need". I left a couple of songs out and added one that is not on the original. The one I added was P.J. Harvey's "Let England Shake" from 2011, mainly because I thought it fits better, as it was inspired by one of the most horrific battles in history, the Battle of Gallipoli, when the British tried to take Istanbul from the Turks. I'm just listing this for my own personal archives and for those interested, as I know many of my readers do not share in my musical tastes. It is for the rockers among my readers. For the sensitive ones, I would suggest you not click on the videos either (some show violence, war imagery, and are a bit provocative). Just keep in mind, this is all in fun as I join in the end of the world humor

Rob Williams – The Independent 

As the 21st of December nears, Russian authorities are attempting to quell fears that the world will come to end amid panic over what some experts claim are the predictions of the Mayan Calendar.

According to the New York Times, there have been scattered reports of unusual behaviour from across Russia, reportedly prompted by predictions of Armageddon.

The reports include “collective mass psychosis” in a women’s prison on the Chinese border, panic buying of matches, kerosene, sugar and candles, and the building, out of ice, of a Mayan-style archway in Chelyabinsk in the south.

According to some experts, ancient Mayans predicted that the 21st of December would signal the end of a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar.

Some parts of Russia, which is often said to have a penchant for mystical thinking, appear to have been spooked by the prediction.

As a consequence the Russian government’s minister for emergency situations has sought to calm panic over the prophecy, saying he had access to “methods of monitoring what is occurring on the planet Earth,” and that he could say with confidence that the world was not going to end in December.

He did, however, make clear that Russians are still vulnerable to “blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, trouble with transportation and food supply, breakdowns in heat, electricity and water supply.”

Russia’s chief sanitary doctor has also issued similar attempts to calm panicky members of the public, one official has also reportedly suggested prosecuting Russians who spread rumour of the prophecy.

Russia may be the most extreme example of prophecy panic so far, but other countries are also experiencing problems.

In Ukraine the Orthodox Church has issued (a not quite reassuring) message that ‘doomsday is sure to come’, but advised it would be brought about by moral decline and not the: “so-called parade of planets or the end of the Mayan calendar.”

In France, authorities are taking steps to prevent access to Bugarach mountain, which is thought by some esoterics to be a sacred place that will protect them from the end of the world. Reports claim websites in the US have been selling tickets to access the mountain.