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The End of the World: From Apocalypse to the End of History and Back

Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of theBuonapartes But ! warn you, if you don"t tell me that this means war,if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated #y that$ntichrist%! really #elieve he is $ntichrist%! will have nothin& moreto do with you and you are no lon&er my friend, no lon&er my'faithful slave,( as you call yourself)

%Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

*

Both the history of the present and psychoanalysis teach us that at the #e&innin&

there was a traumatic event, or a series of traumatic events, to which our

experience never stops referrin& There is somethin& missin&, however, in this

post+traumatic approach There is some insufficiency here What do historians

say where collective traumas such as wars, the olocaust, or &enocide are

concerned- .ormally, they express their #elief that these traumas can #e

wor/ed out, that the function of memory is to shed li&ht on these events, toma/e us aware and conscious of them, and thus to prevent their repetition in the

future !n its turn, psychoanalysis, at least in its o#vious, clinical form,

addresses an individual traumatic experience, which declares itself throu&h a

series of symptoms, and which can potentially #e cured This is of course a

simplification, #ut ! just want to #e clear that there is somethin& these scientific

practices have in common%namely, a certain idea of the present, which can #e

cured, and of the future, which #y this remedy can #e saved !n #oth cases,however, a reference to the traumatic past is necessary%without this, recovery

or redemption is impossi#le

0ilm still from Sharknado, 12*3

! propose, instead of trauma, to tal/ a#out catastrophe The difference #etween

the two is that one cannot really recover after a catastrophe, as one normally

recovers after a trauma 4atastrophe is meta+traumatic !t happens a#solutely5 at

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the #e&innin& there is%there was%always already the end 4atastrophe defines

the #orders of a collective and the true sense of what we call history By

catastrophe ! mean, of course, what people do to other people or to nature, and

what nature or &ods do to people5 wars, &enocide, #om# explosions, hurricanes,

earth6ua/es, volcanic eruptions, #ut also certain le&endary events, li/e theexpulsion of humans from Paradise, the 0lood, and of course, the $pocalypse

$#ove all, ! am thin/in& a#out the catastrophe of one"s own existence, this

apocalypse of the now%the irredeema#le nature of a sin&le present moment

7ou cannot chan&e anythin&8 the worst is what just happened5 your #eloved just

died, your child just died, a &iraffe in the 9oo just died, &od died, too, you

yourself just died or wo/e up in your #ed in the #ody of an uncanny insect, li/e

:af/a"s Gre&or Samsa

$s opposed to what is usually said, catastrophe"s time is not in the future, #ut in

the present, which we can only &rasp as the past, #ecause it flows, just as the

waters of the 0lood5 time itself is catastrophic 4atastrophe is what already

happened, no matter how lon& a&o%it happened in prehistory, or it"s happenin&

ri&ht now, althou&h people are still expectin& some #i&&er, ultimate catastrophe

in the future, as if the previous ones did not really count ! want to ma/e this

point as clear as possi#le Our collective ima&ination, overwhelmed #y all /indsof pictures and scenarios of a future final collapse%#e it another world war,

$rma&eddon, an alien invasion, an epidemic or a pandemic, a 9om#ie virus, a

ro#ot uprisin&, an ecolo&ical or natural catastrophe%is nothin& #ut projections

of this past+present We project onto the future what we cannot endure as

somethin& which already occurred, or which is happenin& now We still #elieve

that the worst is yet to come%it is a perspective, #ut not a reality, and therefore

our reality is still not that #ad $ fear of the future and anxiety a#out someindefinite event ;'we will all die(< is easier to suffer than a certain, irrepara#le,

and irreversi#le horror that has just happened ;'we are all already dead(<

There is, however, a difference #etween reality ;which is still not that #ad< and

the real There are two times5 the time of so+called reality, and real, or

catastrophic, time, which flows, irreversi#ly, li/e music The time of so+called

reality &ives us a delusion of the present and the future, to which we are

dedicated and where we #elieve there is salvation We loo/ to the future and forthe future8 we have visions of future catastrophes, and these visions prevent us



from &raspin& the catastrophe of the real, or the real catastrophe, which just

happens Only Walter Benjamin"s an&el, $n&elus .ovus from :lee"s paintin&,

sees history as 'one sin&le catastrophe,( at which he loo/s #ac/ with horror5

'The an&el would li/e to stay, awa/en the dead, and ma/e whole what has #een

smashed But a storm is #lowin& from Paradise8 it has &ot cau&ht in his win&s

with such violence that the an&el can no lon&er close them(1

$n early and well+/nown version of the final worldwide catastrophe is

presented in chapters =>? of Genesis 7ou all /now the story5 at a certain

moment, God re&retted what he had created, #ecause people committed too

much sin e decided to destroy everythin&, to erase all flesh from the face of

the earth in order to &ive humanity another chance $lthou&h animals didn"t

commit any sins, they too had to share this destiny $lon& with his family, .oah

was o#li&ed #y God to ta/e alon& animals of all species%of every clean animal

#y sevens, male and female, and of every unclean animal #y couples, male and

female

@an Brue&hel the Alder, Noah’s Ark , c sixteenth century Oil on panel

!n some paintin&s dedicated to this story, we see the ar/, .oah"s family, and an

enormous crowd of animals 6ueuin& to &et in Perhaps there was panic, li/e in

our apocalyptic movies where there is a very limited transport vessel and an

unlimited num#er of people tryin& to #oard it !t is the only way to #e saved

from the virus, from the 9om#ie attac/, or, just li/e in .oah"s case, from some

&lo#al natural disaster5 two, four, six, seven%'.o, sorry,( .oah may say to the

last in line, 'we have enou&h of your /ind( The last of each species enters, the

doors of the ship are closed, the a#yss of the s/y opens, and cold waters cover

the earth

!n the recent $merican film version of this story #y arren $ronofs/y, the

eponymous .oah ;Cussell 4rowe< doesn"t really &et any direct instructions

from God e only &ets si&ns, which he decodes in his own way, and perhaps

incorrectly 0rom the very #e&innin&, when he starts to #uild the ship, until the

end, when he desperately &oes on drin/in& upon arrival, he is constantlydou#tin& his interpretation of God"s will $t a certain point, all of the





preselected animals, already in order, simply come to the ar/ and occupy their

respective places Of course, God cannot tal/ directly to this .oah, as he did to

the other .oah of Genesis, #ecause this new .oah is supposed to #e a man of

free choice%a true $merican who will save the world What is interestin&

a#out the film is one of .oah"s dream+li/e visions5 a water column full of deadand dyin&, drownin& #odies of humans and other animals That"s how a

catastrophe mi&ht really loo/ from inside, from the point of view of the one

who is there in the water%here is a &irl, hands up, here is a small elephant, a

sna/e, a mess of #easts of all si9es, all sli&htly losin& their power of resistance

and &oin& to the #ottom, to&ether with plants, fra&ments of thin&s, and de#ris

0ilm still from arren $ronofs/y"s Noah, 12*D

Eost often we tend to identify ourselves with those who will #e saved We

thin/ of ourselves as one of those chosen seven of our species who were ta/en

on#oard%one of those who mana&ed to &o throu&h the holy police cordon,

#ehind which the damned, the sinners, the infected, the losers, and all the others

were left !n our reality+time ima&ination we all #elon& to .oah"s family8 we

loo/ at the disaster from outside, from the ar/, so that only the water"s surface

can #e seen, and not what is &oin& on in its depths%in the real+time of the

catastrophe !t still did not happen to us, it happened to someone else, and for

those in the water, it"s really happenin&%that"s why ! say that they are livin&

throu&h, or rather dyin& throu&h, a real, or catastrophic, time !n reality+time, in

turn, the waters are still comin& closer and closer, the catastrophe can and will

happen, and we need to #e prepared for it%at least that"s what popular

4hristian culture teaches us, constantly #rin&in& us new material fordaydreamin& a#out our disastrous future ;in which, if we are &ood enou&h, we

will #e finally saved<

Some people are still tryin& to search for si&ns of a forthcomin& apocalypse in

the Boo/ of Cevelation, the final #oo/ of the .ew Testament, as if i&norin& the

fact that someone named @ohn, the author of this #oo/, datin& approximately

from the first century $, proclaimed that 'the time is at hand, all this will

happen shortly( $lthou&h all the relevant data are encoded accordin& to an

opa6ue #i#lical numerolo&y, most researchers who address this 6uestion seem



to a&ree that the num#er of the #east of the $pocalypse%a numerical version of

the $ntichrist%points to the name of .ero the Amperor of Come, who, to&ether

with omitian, was /nown as a very cruel dictator, massacrin& and persecutin&

early 4hristian communities $s An&els indicates in his short essay on the Boo/

of Cevelation ;*??3<, with a reference to Arnst Cenan, these communities inthat era 'were rather li/e local sections of the !nternational Wor/in& Een"s

$ssociation(3 The author of the #oo/ was himself most li/ely one of the

victims of this mass repression, and he wrote this #oo/ on Patmos !sland, to

which he was exiled #y the Comans for #elievin& in 'the word of God and for

the testimony of @esus 4hrist(D

The very word Apokalypsis, from the :oine Gree/, means 'unveilin&( or

'revelation( !t unveils and reveals the truth a#out a certain reality $s far as it

unveils ;ie, unveils what is<, etymolo&ically, the apocalypse is always now

'ow 4hristianity loo/ed in =? F$ we can here see as in a mirror,( An&els

says a#out the Boo/ of Cevelation, thus perfectly &raspin& a mirrorin&

relationship #etween reality and the real, revealed throu&h this peculiar

numerolo&yH !n this sense, Cevelation is a #oo/ on history, which depicts the

reli&ious and class stru&&le of that time, and addresses 4hristians with a call for

solidarity5 note that @ohn does not address just anyone8 his #oo/ contains

messa&es for the seven churches of $sia, ie, the existin& 4hristian

communities of his day 'The apocalypse is now, don"t &ive up(%that"s how

one would now translate @ohn"s messa&e

Saint Beatus of LiI#ana, The Apocalypse of Saint Sever, **H2

!f we #elieve that @ohn"s apocalypse was already at hand, doesn"t this mean

that, for now, the catastrophe he revealed has already happened, the world is

over, and we are now all livin& in the post+apocalypse- $nd if the world is over,

how is it possi#le, then, not to &ive up- $lexander Een, a Cussian Orthodox

priest, theolo&ian, and #i#lical scholar, who was murdered in *JJ2 #y an axe+

wieldin& assailant, replies to this 6uestion in his lecture dedicated to The Boo/

of the Cevelation ;*J?J<5 'The end of the world is a permanent reality8 it

constantly repeats(= Een interprets it in a very 4hristian way5 there is a

catastrophe, and there is a salvation8 all turnin& points in history are

apocalyptic, the stru&&le #etween &ood and evil repeats a&ain and a&ain, and the











&ood may even win each time a #eliever opens the door of his heart to @esus,

who /noc/s there

But isn"t it true that, if there is no &od, a catastrophe should happen alone,

without the necessary supplement of salvation- !n this case, one can still say

that the end of the world is a permanent reality This will just mean that the time

of the real sometimes simply catches reality+time #y its tail, or #rea/s its screen,

#ehind which there is neither future, nor even present The catastrophe of the

real ma/es the reality of the catastrophe permanent That"s how one would

explain ;althou&h there are various possi#le explanations%since the story is

true, its interpretation is infinite< the fact that the event of the apocalypse

constantly repeats

One of the relatively secular, modern versions of the apocalypse is the idea of

the end of history, presented #y $lexander :ojKve, #ased on his ;mis<readin& of

e&el While for e&el the movement of spirit is #oth historical and eternal,

and the end can #e understood in terms of the &oal of history, which coincides

with the dialectical development of reason, /nowled&e, and so forth, :ojKve

simply declares that history is over%that nothin& really new can ever happen

on earth !t seems that there is nothin& catastrophic a#out this version, except

for its assertion that there is no more future

0ilm still from :evin 4ostner"s Waterworld, *JJH

To ma/e a lon& story short, the #e&innin& of time, accordin& to :ojKve,

coincides with the appearance of man Before this moment, there is no time

There is only natural #ein&, or space, and animals that inha#it this spaceistory starts when, at a certain point, one of those animals turns into a man

The appearance of man as an active, sufferin&, fi&htin&, and wor/in&

nothin&ness will introduce history and time, and in the process, will ne&ate the

naturally &iven multitude of #ein&s for the #enefit of his supernatural, ideal

&oals uman #ein&s open history, which will #e the history of stru&&les, wars,

and revolutions throu&h which they actively chan&e the world

The point is that the end of history should coincide with its #e&innin&, and atthe end of istory, human #ein&s should turn #ac/ into animals :ojKvian



history &oes around only once, with no repetition, and this is the history of

#ecomin& human, which is already over To finali9e history, man has to create a

universal homo&eneous state of mutual reco&nition%a state of the total

satisfaction of all desires $t the end of history, man does not need to chan&e the

world, to wor/ and to fi&ht any lon&er8 satisfaction is possi#le here and now

0ollowin& :ojKve"s lo&ic, this point was theoretically already achieved%after

the #attle of @ena, since even e&el saw .apoleon as a world spirit ridin& on

horse#ac/5

!n and #y this #attle the van&uard of humanity virtually attained thelimit and the aim, that is, the end, of Ean"s historical evolution Whathas happened since then was #ut an extension in space of the universal

revolutionary force actuali9ed in 0rance #y Co#espierre+.apoleon0rom the authentically historical point of view, the two world warswith their retinue of lar&e and small revolutions had only the effect of#rin&in& the #ac/ward civili9ations of the peripheral provinces intoline with the most advanced ;real or virtual< Auropean historical

positions

! must note that, even #efore :ojKve, apocalyptic expectations of .apoleon

were prominent, especially in Cussian literature and particularly in Tolstoy"sWar and Peace and Go&ol"s Dead Souls Thus, one of Tolstoy"s characters,

Pierre Be9u/hov, is o#sessed with the idea that .apoleon is the true $ntichrist,

whose name, when written in 0rench and deciphered accordin& to an ancient

numerical plate, is the same === as the #east of the $pocalypse The main

character of Go&ol"s novel, 4hichi/ov, travels across rural Cussia and literally

collects dead souls People spread various rumors a#out him,

amon& them a theory that 4hichi/ov was .apoleon, escaped from Stelena and travellin& a#out the world in dis&uise $nd if it should #esupposed that no such notion could possi#ly have #een #roached, letthe reader remem#er that these events too/ place not many years afterthe 0rench had #een driven out of Cussia, and that various prophetshad since declared that .apoleon was $ntichrist, and would one dayescape from his island prison to exercise universal sway on earth .ay,some &ood fol/ had even declared the letters of .apoleon"s name to

constitute the $pocalyptic cipher)?

0rom e&el"s Phenomenology of Spirit , which was finished in *?2, to Go&ol"s







Dead Souls, pu#lished in *?D1, the Amperor+horseman of the $pocalypse too/ a

lon& journey throu&h Aurope to Cussia and #ac/, in order to end up, after one

century, cele#rated in a secular apocalypse #y :ojKve The #attle of @ena was a

/ind of :ojKvian $rma&eddon, where 'Auropean historical positions( finally

won, with a universal state now on the way%there was nothin& left for it to do#ut fit a certain social reality, find a &ood+enou&h state that could serve as a

model for further posthistorical unfoldin&

Of course, such a state was soon indicated%first in :ojKve"s own, rather ironic

note a#out the $merican way of life, with its expandin& consumption as a

perfect example of human #ein&s turnin& #ac/ into animals ;althou&h :ojKve

himself in fact proposed several other exemplars of this, includin& Cussia and

@apan< Then followed the more popular and official version #y 0rancis

0u/uyama, who literally and positively identified the end of history with

$merican li#eral democracy and contemporary capitalism

$ very clear and simple o#jection to this can #e raised from the point of view of

communist eschatolo&y 'The history of all hitherto existin& society is the

history of class stru&&les,( write Earx and An&els in The ommunist !anifesto

$s lon& as the stru&&le continues, history &oes on While for a capitalist

ideolo&ist li/e 0u/uyama, the final #attle has already #een won ;and thus the

winner ma/es history his property, which is now commodified, carefully stored,

or just thrown off, #ut never freely distri#uted<, for a communist, $rma&eddon

is still to come ;unless it"s &oin& on ri&ht now< $ communist cannot let the

enemy have history @ust li/e the early 4hristians, he doesn"t want to &ive up5

for this reason, he needs to #elieve that history continues This ma/es sense

!ma&ine if someone stole all the drin/a#le water on earth $ thirsty crowd is

/noc/in& on the thief"s door and as/in& for water The water is gone, he says to

them, #ut they /now that the water is not &one, that it was just stolen

4apitalism is li/e this5 it steals water But ima&ine if there is really no more

water, if the enemy really won and has already devastated and dehydrated the

land This is a catastrophe, somehow opposite to the 0lood%the Thirst

$ form of crystali9ed water recently found at =22 /m #elow the earth"s crust has lead scientist to

#elieve a lar&er reserve of su#terranean water is still to #e explored at these depths



There are, however, some versions of the end of history which, ! must say,

come 6uite close to the :ojKvian version, althou&h they explicitly #elon& to the

field of anticapitalist thou&ht Thus, the theory of the multitude proposed #y

$ntonio .e&ri and Eichael ardt implies that we are now livin& in a world of

&lo#al empire !n this world, the traditional industrial proletariat does not existanymore%it has already disappeared, and instead of class stru&&le, a creative

multitude of sin&ularities develops out of its own life an immanent resistance to

capitalism ;thus we have the totality of &lo#al capital and its immanent

resistance< Traditional national states are dyin& too, &ivin& way to transnational

capital, which does not /now #orders

!f we try to apply these theses to our reality and read them throu&h our reality+

time, they immediately lose any sense ;althou&h a lot of Western people ta/e

them literally and truly #elieve that immaterial la#or has now replaced material

la#or, and the &lo#al has replaced the national< Of course, material wor/ers are

still here, they still create all that we have in our daily lives%all those dresses,

cars, 4oca+4olas This world of commodities we live in is a result of the hi&hly

exploited and totally noncreative material la#or of the people in the third world,

of mi&rants, of the poor

Thou&h they are not socially represented, material la#orers are here, and their

existence must not #e i&nored The nation+state is still here too%capitalism and

the nation+state still &o hand in hand, and the imperialist tendencies of capital

only increase the role of the nation+state, when it"s needed ;loo/ at Cussia and

M/raine, at !srael, at Syria, at the new de#ates a#out mi&ration policy in Aurope,

at the new discussion on identityNinte&ration, soverei&nty, and so forth< The

multitude and capital are not just two entities existin& in front of each other5 the

undead nation+state stands in #etween them, and when needed, prevents the

multitude from ac6uirin& a class consciousness ;that"s how, for example,

political protests in non+Western countries, where the wor/in& class never

ceased to exist, easily transform into nationalNethnic conflicts< !n short, such

leftist versions of the end of history seem to #e refuted #y history itself, which

&oes on and on

0ilm still from Eichael 4urti9"s Noah’s Ark, *J1?



To this reasona#le o#jection to the postmodern anticapitalist form of the end of

history, one could reply that these ideas can actually ma/e sense, #ut from an

apocalyptic perspective5 they can #e read as a new apocalypse for the left

$nother evil empire wins, and another community doesn"t &ive up $nd a&ain,

li/e any apocalypse, this one &ives way to futurist and messianic visions of aforthcomin& catastrophe, followed #y salvation Thus, contemporary

accelerationists seem to seriously care a#out the future8 it should #e snatched

from the enemy"s claws The future should #e pushed forward to the very #rin/

of capitalist catastrophe5 capitalism will destroy itself and the world around it

sooner or later, #ut our tas/ is to outrun its catastrophic sprint, to pass ahead ;!n

a way, the '$ccelerationist Eanifesto( sounds li/e the plot of an old Soviet

science fiction story, where scientists from a faraway communist future &o #ac/to the past with a time machine to prevent a catastropheJ< But isn"t capitalism

itself a catastrophe- oes it not /ill wor/ers- !sn"t, finally, the num#er of the

capitalist #east inscri#ed into the #arcode of every commodity, as some cra9y

4hristians never stop warnin&-

0inally, ! will mention yet another thin/er who raised an o#jection to #oth the

capitalist and the communist end of history !n his 'Letter to , Lecturer on

e&el,( written in *J3, Bataille famously says5

!f action ;doin&< is%as e&el says%ne&ativity, the 6uestion arises as

to whether the ne&ativity of one who has 'nothin& more to do(disappears or remains in a state of 'unemployed ne&ativity(Personally, ! can only decide in one way, #ein& myself precisely this'unemployed ne&ativity( ;! would not #e a#le to define myself more

precisely< ! don"t mind e&el"s havin& foreseen this possi#ility8 atleast he didn"t situate it at the conclusion of the process he descri#ed !

ima&ine that my life%or, #etter yet, its a#ortin&, the open wound thatis my life%constitutes all #y itself the refutation of e&el"s closed

system*2

This loo/s li/e a very personal o#jection, even a spectacular one ;'what a#out

me-(< Bataille continued to develop this ar&ument, particularly in his The

Accursed Share, where he lin/s it to his version of political economy uite

simply, the end of history would mean the end of social ine6ualities ;which is a

final &oal of communism<, and as far as these ine6ualities continue to exist,

history cannot #e ended But even communism cannot really, accordin& to







Bataille, effectively achieve its &oal%it wants to eliminate differences for the

sa/e of a universal humanity, #ut humanity itself is divided #etween the human,

the nonhuman, and the more or less human umanity itself is distri#uted

une6ually%as far as we ne&ate ourselves as animals, history doesn"t have an

end, at least a happy end $nd, unli/e :ojKve, Bataille insists that we cannottransform into animals a&ain%#ecomin& human is irreversi#le ;an open wound

is produced #y humans" separation from animality, and this is what it means to

#e a human #ein&<

Eermaid+clad swimmers perform in 0lorida"s Eermaid theme par/, Wee/i Watches

This appears to #e a true deadloc/, for which only a yet #i&&er deadloc/ can

provide a /ind of solution What really eliminates differences is catastrophe5 in

the waters of the 0lood, everyone is e6ual ! am ar&uin& not for a messianic, #ut

a catastrophic communism, ie, the end of the world ta/en in its real+time !n

this time, the end of the end of history doesn"t mean that we still have a future,

and that it will &et #etter or worse !t will not &et worse, it"s already worse $ll

of these phenomena that are associated with reality and that are supposed to

reemer&e after the new #e&innin& of history%wars, repression, #utchery, and so

forth%are really visions of our present 9om#ie apocalypse The end of the end

as the real end would mean an encounter #etween reality+time and real+time !t

would force us to accept the fact of our real+time apocalypse, and to ta/e it over

as the only true revolutionary situation%a situation where there is no hope, #ut

only despair !n this situation, we cannot /eep waitin& for a future catastrophe

;with a happy end<8 a messianic moment of hope, of #elievin& in the future and

in the idea that we are still full of life, puts us to sleep, lost in dreams Onlywhen already dead, and facin& no future, do we really have nothin& to lose

Q

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