Note: This discourse was given at Red River UU. I explore how we might work together to end the world as we know it in order to create the world as it should be. I have to give a shoutout to the rock group R.E.M. for the title of the discourse as it comes from their song title “it’s the End of the World as We Know It.”

Wishing for the end of the unjust and brutal world as we know it is not a new phenomenon. We see it expressed it over an over again in the apocalyptic literature of various religions and in liberation movements, both past and present, working to end injustice and oppression. 

One of the professors in my graduate school years at Boston University, Paula Fredriksen, was an expert on Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, and she often reminded her students that apocalyptic literature is not written by happy people. It is written by people who are deeply disappointed with the way things are and who are longing for their experience of suffering and the injustice of the world as they know it to come to an end. Being controlled and oppressed by an imperial power and being persecuted and even fed to the lions does not make for a happy people. 

With this in mind, I find that the most helpful way to read apocalyptic literature is not as a prediction that the world will actually end, but rather as prophetic statement that the world as we know it, an unjust world that the powerful have created and perpetuated, must end before a new world of love and justice can break through.

It is tragic irony that the apocalyptic literature of the Christian tradition that was written as a rebuke and rejection of the brutality of empire is now being used by empire to control the hearts and minds of the masses for the sake of perpetuating empire and its unjust and violent ways. The longing for a new and just world so often expressed in apocalyptic literature has been tragically transformed into a nihilistic obsession with the destruction of the world and finding ways to escape this destruction by seeking personal salvation in another world after this life. Rather than a prophetic force for change in this world, apocalyptic visions have been co-opted by the powerful to keep the oppressed and the vulnerable in their place. 

So many aspects of the world as we know it must end for the world as we need it to begin. It is imperative that we see clearly that the world that the oligarchs want is not the world that people and the planet need. If people spent more time working to transform our world towards love and justice rather than attempting to escape this world for a heaven above, it would go a long way towards avoiding the hell on earth that the oligarchs are currently creating. 

There are roughly three possible responses to the unsustainable and unjust situation that we are currently experiencing in the world right now:

One possible response is for us to have unrealistic “pie in the sky” hope – everything is going to be alright. Don’t worry, be happy. This response might make us feel better, but it actually does nothing to make the world a better place for those who are being oppressed and exploited. 

A second option is hopelessness and despair – all is lost. We are doomed. 

The oligarchs and the autocrats want the people to give up, to feel hopeless, to stop believing in democratic political processes. The best way to resist the oligarchs and autocrats is by redoubling our enthusiasm for and commitment to democracy and to use every non-violent democratic tool at our disposal to keep hope in democracy alive because we know from the evidence in other countries that the more democratic and participatory we are; the more healthy, more happy, more educated, more sustainable, more free, more just, and less corrupt we will be as a nation.

The third option is Meliorism or realistic hope: 

The dual aspects of awareness of both evil and our capacity for goodness in humanity have made a lasting impression on me. We have seen too many human failings (including our own) to be overly optimistic about the future, but we have also seen too many wonderful acts of life-giving love and compassion to be overly pessimistic. I am a meliorist. I believe we can make the world a better place through hard work and shared commitment, but there is no guarantee. It is up to us. It is our responsibility.

It may actually be true that the world as we know it is coming to end, but this just may be the best opportunity we have to work together to create a new and better world for both our human community and our ecological community. Perhaps the end of the world as we know it must take place before the world as we need it can more fully come into existence. 

We need the end of a violent world. We need the end of a patriarchal and misogynist world, We need the end of an unjust and racist world. We need an end of a world that is controlled by the wealthy and powerful to satisfy their greed. We need the end of a cruel, brutal, and unsustainable world. We need an end to the worst of the world to bring the best of the world into being. 

And if we do the necessary work to bring this new world of beloved community into existence, we might find ourselves joining in the chorus of R.E.M.’s song: “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” And I feel fine.