TV's Moral Philosophy

How Buffy Reveals the Problem with Apocalyptic Thinking

"The earth is definitely doomed."

We all think the world is going to end at some point, usually within our own lifetime. Generations after generations of people have proclaimed that the end of the world is coming. That in the not too distant future, everything will come to either a glorious end or a horrifically disastrous one, depending in large part on the way in which we act in the present. It's believed that we hold the destiny of everything and everyone we love in the palm of our hands. All we have to do is act in the correct way when the appointed time comes and somehow the bad one will be avoided and the good one will come to pass.

There's a comfort in the idea that we have control over our ultimate fate. A belief that we can avoid eternal suffering or the eventual suffering of those to come. Of course, the problem with this type of thinking is that even if we act the way we're supposed to, bad things keep happening. Disasters keep occurring that upend the idea that we can control our own fate. Whether it's terrorism or natural disasters or pandemics, we're constantly reminded of how little control we have over our lives. It makes us feel helpless. As if the world is going to end at any moment and there's nothing we can do to avoid it.

So we invent rules and ideas that help us to avoid such things, or at least we tell ourselves that. But despite our best efforts, those rules never end up anywhere good. It never solves the problem we seem to be trying to fix. They just perpetuate the coming disaster and sometimes even bring those problems about.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer at its core is about this way of thinking. The belief that the world is going to come to an end at any minute. Except in the case of the show, the ends are in fact literal. If Buffy and her friends Willow, Xander and Giles don't take action, the world will come to an end. But no matter how many of these disasters Buffy and her friends manage to stop, there's always another apocalypse around the corner. There's no end to the death and destruction they experience on a regular basis. And over time, this way of thinking starts to take its toll on them.

They come to expect the end of the world around every corner. That things are going to end badly for them, whether it's their relationships or the actual apocalypse. It creates the idea that they can't be happy. Nothing but death and destruction, misery and pain until they die. This way of thinking even leads to the point that they want to bring about the apocalypse themselves. In the final season in particular, that's where Buffy's mindset is after almost a decade of trying to prevent the end of the world. Which is why she says:

"If they want an apocalypse, then we'll give them one."

She just can't take it anymore.

And that's the problem with thinking as if the world is going to end. Somewhat ironically, that type of thinking never ends. It's only through moving beyond apocalyptic thinking that any progress can be made.

How have you thought in an apocalyptic way? Did you find a way around it? What's the best way to do so?