Elective Affinity between Political and Religious Apocalyptic Discourses

The final IAMCR 2023 session for today starts with Joseph Gotte, whose focus is on the elective affinity between political and religious discourses about the ecological apocalypse. ‘Elective affinity’ here is a concept referring to the relationship between religious beliefs and social formations, lifestyle, and economic behaviours; it is the process by which two cultural forms enter into a relationship of mutual attraction and influence.

This is applied here to the apocalyptic genre, which stems from biblical writings and describes an apocalyptic revelation; in recent times it has also been transformed into catastrophism, describing a cataclysmic, often ecological change or collapse. Joseph’s work examines some 72 books of various genres, as well as 11 online videos, as 5 films or TV shows, as well as 15 interviews and 25 observations.

Common themes here are an unsettled presentism in the content’s relationship to time: there is a resurgence of a pre-modern apocalyptic regime of historicity, but under the influence of social acceleration in late modernity – matters are urgent, there is a rupture, there is a back and forth between present and future, and a responsibility to future generations.

A second theme is a revelatory genre in a biblical style, but this is an apocalypse without a kingdom, leading to the extinction of humanity without final judgment or redemption, which may be avoided through a transformation of economic structures and the reorganisation of social structures – this describes a kind of salvation under secularised features.

A third feature is a prophetic ethos where key authors position themselves in marginalised positions as pioneers and warners, but this needs to be qualified as many are actually quite influential and have become so because of the growing awareness of the ecological crisis to come. This presents a kind of secularised form of clairvoyance, subversion, and trouble-making.

Finally, there is the pragmatic aim of a trajectory shift: the apocalypse is expected with conviction and certainty, but prophets hope that their predictions may not come through if we depart from the destructive trajectory.

But in spite of these affinities with religious discourses, there are also secular discontinuities: the fate of humanity is seen as being in its own hands, there is a responsibility to future generations, there is a quest for the salvation of the earth and its species, and the warnings are based on scientific knowledge rather than religious belief.