John Michael Greer on the History of Apocalyptic Thinking and its Limitations

Podcast via http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/episode-32-apocalypse-never/

Description

"Even though we live in an age of economic decline and collapse, do our expectations for the future act similarly to the thought patterns of religious faiths expecting the end of the world? For the last 3,000 years, our species has used the meme of apocalypse to create the expectation for a utopia that never arose. Beginning with the Zoroastrian religion, the monotheistic faiths have contained the notion of an end to the world. Our historical record contains many events where a date was set and nothing happened. How did it feel to be one of those that had sacrificed everything to be swept away by a deity that never arrived?

In Extraenvironmentalist #32 we speak with John Michael Greer about his latest book, Apocalypse Not: Everything You Know About 2012, Nostradamus and the Rapture are Wrong. We ask John about the historical context of monotheistic religions, where the apocalypse meme began and its implications in our expectations for the future. We ask if the world is going to end in 2012 and JMG explains how David Icke’s evil space lizards are involved. Did Seth really see George W.Bush metamorph into a lizard? If he didn’t, what happens when we reach the end of the current Mayan calendar long count?" (http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/episode-32-apocalypse-never/)