The Neocon Agenda and the Logic of Eschatology

When I was a teenager in high school, I worked the desk at the school library. One day a girl came in and asked "Do you have any books on squirls?" She had rescued a baby squirrel that had fallen out of a tree and become injured. And that was the beginning of one of the strangest friendships I've ever had. She was smart, she was pretty, her eyes were like cold, hard diamond chips -- intractable. We spent the next couple of years engaged in what only can be described as a bizarre kind of mutual evangelism, she trying to convert me to her faith, I trying to dissuade her from it. It was through this intellectual exercise that a Jewish boy from New York first became acquainted with the New Testament. We both rather enjoyed these talks even though neither of us had learned to "agree to disagree."

She had solid reasoning ability, designing experiments and evaluating their results. She had a strong command of language, Ivy League grades in Advanced Placement classes, and SAT scores that were through the roof. Intellectually, she was certainly no slouch. When High School Graduation was not far off for her, I asked her what colleges she was considering. I was imagining Cornell, Columbia, Harvard even.

"I'm not going to College," she replied.

To say that my head caved would be an understatement. "What are you planning to do with the rest of your life?" I asked.

"Live on my grandmother's Farm."

"How long do you expect your grandmother to live?"

"Until the End of Days."

And there you have it. Call it the Fallacy of the Immanent Eschaton, if you will; she was making her life choices based on the eschatological vision of a religion which has predicted the end of the world within each decade since 1840. The fact that their vision never came to pass never stopped them believing it. And this belief has a most dangerous effect:

It means we need not consider the future in our choices.

Just as my high school friend did not need to consider her future when planning for college (she eventually went to a local college under pressure from her mother and me) so the current administration feels no need to worry about the deficit, or the environment. All of those problems will be solved by the Rapture. And the faster the Rapture comes to pass the faster all our problems will be solved.

Christianity is hardly alone in possessing sects that believe the end of the world is imminent. Islam and Judaism, too, have their share of wackos. And because all three religions believe that Israel is going to be the stage for the final battle, the intractability of both parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict suddenly makes sense too. After all it is the extremists on both sides who drive that conflict -- people who need not build a better world for future generations because they believe they are living in the generation of the end.

But it is dangerous to live as if there is no tomorrow, as if deficits and global warming do not matter. Because, just in case the world doesn't happen to end this year, we will have to live with the consequences of our choices.

I called my High School friend a few years after she and her mother moved back to North Carolina. Her mother answered the phone. "Oh, she's married to a local gentleman now." When I try to imagine what her life must be like now, I see a tired woman leading a swarm of children through a Wal-Mart. It's sad, but that's what happens when your plans for the future depend on the end of the world.

I'm from New Jersey
I don't expect too much
If the world ended today
I would adjust.
-- John Gorka