Apocalyptic Politics
Dateline: December 22, 1999
"APOCALYPTIC POLITICS" > Page 1 , 2 , 3, 4
Modernity
The same contexts have kept producing apocalyptic millennialism even well after the Middle Ages. In Africa through the 1700s and 1800s there were many failed revolts which can be traced directly to Christian millennial inspiration combining with local, native beliefs. One example was the Xhosa, who, in 1857, killed all their cattle and abandoned the cultivation of their lands when their prophets convinced them that their ancestors would soon be reborn, bring better cattle and drive the Europeans back home. Maybe a third of them died and then the South African government - made up of white Christians who were much less gullible than the poor Xhosa, right? - saw this as an opportunity to completely eliminate their culture.
Such events were not restricted to Christian influences in Africa, but also occurred in America. Millenarian movements inspired by strange combinations of Christian apocalyptic visions and indigenous traditions arose among Indians throughout America and Canada. Two of the most tragic incidents in the relations between the U.S. Government and the Indians - the murder of Sitting Bull and the massacre at Wounded Knee - seem to stem in part from American inability to properly understand the millenarian expectations of the Indians.
Millenarian expectations took one form in the fabled "Ghost Dance" beliefs, whereby warriors who carefully prepared themselves with fasting and ritual could become impervious to the bullets of soldiers. This was originally intended as purely pacifistic in nature, but it was not seen that way by the government. Their inspirational visions showed a land without any white men, without anything made by white men, and with Indians back in control. These predictions by socially, economically and religiously alienated peoples were a threat to the powerful social institutions of the day, even if Indians did not intend to bring them about by force.
Sitting Bull publicly supported the Ghost Dance, and this led to fear about what he might do in the future. Soldiers went to arrest him, but the high tensions flamed by newspaper accounts turned a simple arrest into a slaughter of 14 people, including the old chief. Official nervousness about the Ghost Dance also lead to orders to round up the last independent band of Lakota Sioux under Chief Big Foot. Commanders on both sides wanted peace and tried to maintain claim, but fear and mistrust created panic which lead to the massacre of 146 unarmed Indians at Wounded Knee.
Contemporary America
Such combinations keep occurring in America even today. The Heaven's Gate suicide resulted from a melding of apocalyptic millennialism and contemporary traditions about UFOs and alien influences. It doesn't seem as though anyone really quite understands what they believed and why they killed themselves, but people are generally pretty happy that this millenarian group didn't decide to take everyone else with them like so many others seem to want to do.
The tragedy in Waco involving the Branch Davidians was largely due to the apocalyptic beliefs of the Davidians, but it was also supported by modern conservative conspiracy theories. That, like the aforementioned incidents with the Indians, was also partially the result of official institutions failing to understand what they had to deal with. It took a while for the FBI to find someone with any real understanding of the apocalyptic theology which David Koresh was spouting off, and that delayed substantive negotiations, perhaps fatally
Another serious threat stems from Christian and Jewish apocalyptic millenarians focused upon Jerusalem. A common belief is that the only thing remaining to usher in God's apocalypse is the rebuilding of Solomon's temple. Unfortunately, the site of the temple is currently occupied by what is perhaps the second most important mosque in all of Islam. Or perhaps this is a fortunate situation - building the Temple will require first destroying the mosque. That will almost certainly lead to a jihad of all Muslim nations against Israel, just the sort of thing you need to have a really good apocalypse.
This would, however, be an unmitigated disaster for the rest of us content to take responsibility for whatever messes we have in our societies and trying to fix them ourselves.
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