Defining "Apocalypse"

Misunderstanding apocalypse also leads us to misunderstand resilience

This project is about the apocalypse. Which, of course, is obvious, it’s right there in the title. But I realized that until now I have yet to define the term. I think, like a lot of terms thrown around in today’s world, we tend to get them wrong. One obvious one to me is the term anarchy which has become synonymous with chaos. But as I’ve written, it’s anything but, rather it’s an actual, viable social order.

I think in a similar way, we’ve all misunderstood apocalypse. I do think we know what apocalypse is more than we know what the actual definition of anarchy is, but I don’t know if we’ve really wrapped our minds around it to really understand it and how it could happen or know that it has already happened to many people.

But before we get to the definition, let’s talk about our preconceived notions of the term. Or rather, let’s talk about my preconceived notions of the term before I dove into this project. When I heard the term “apocalypse,” the images that came to mind were those created by Hollywood: aliens coming down to earth and wiping out the majority of the human population, a virus wiping out the majority of the human population within a matter of weeks, hordes of zombies seeking new flesh to add to their ranks, a nuclear war decimating the majority of human population. 

These are most definitely apocalyptic scenarios. And, you know what, they may be viable (save for maybe the aliens and zombies, but who knows). But they are also less likely than the apocalypses that have happened and are happening. I think when we think about the apocalypse being one big catastrophe all around the world in one moment or over the course of a few weeks, we get something wrong about that apocalypse. It almost feels distant when really it is quite close or, in many ways, already here.

And so that brings me to the definition of apocalypse. 

The root of the word apocalypse comes from the Greek word, apokálypsis, which means “uncovering.” A recent Instagram post from adrienne maree brown reminded me of this definition. She posted an image with these words: “Things are not getting worse. They are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.” 

This post was in relation to the bombing of Gaza. It’s not that what we’re seeing isn’t catastrophic and horrific, but that it’s something inevitable in a situation where Palestinians have been oppressed for decades. And it’s also a pulling back of the curtain on global humanity. Humanity is being tested witnessing thousands of Palestinians being murdered by US government-funded bombs. It is undoubtedly appalling to see war crimes being committed, funded by the Western world, and many, many people justifying a genocide. What we are seeing is the “uncovering” of the true nature of people and the world that is happening. “Uncovering” is a neutral word in that it offers a moment of decision. We are at a crossroads. Something has happened, so what are we going to do with that? 

I think we’re seeing that with the atrocities being committed in Gaza and the world’s response. The inability for the United States not advocating for a permanent ceasefire which would protect an incredibly vulnerable and oppressed population. But also for all of us watching the horrors happening. What is being uncovered is who we really are. 

And brown’s corresponding text in the caption offers some direction in how we approach this apocalypse:

“tides turn

because we turn them

minds change

because we change them

hearts open

through grief

that becomes action

that becomes portal

until entire generations

are liberated

may our actions today

free us all

from apartheid”

These words show how we can move forward in the direction of humanity. The actions we take can align with that and it’s that moment of “uncovering” that offers us that choice.

Another way I think we should consider thinking about “the” apocalypse is that it’s not something as yet in the future. What’s happening in Gaza as we speak proves that apocalypse is occurring right now. But also apocalypses have occurred in the past. The Holocaust being a potent example. But also, the apocalypse Indigenous peoples of North America experienced over the course of centuries.

In a 2019 interview in Dissent, Nick Estes, citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux tribe and author of “Our History Is the Future" specifically talks about the apocalypse. “Indigenous people are post-apocalyptic,” he says. “In some cases, we have undergone several apocalypses. For my community alone, it was the destruction of the buffalo herds, the destruction of our animal relatives on the land, the destruction of our animal nations in the nineteenth century, of our river homelands in the twentieth century.”

This apocalypse was at the hands of the United States government and European settlers. And given that so much of history is written by the oppressors, many of us who grew up in the United States did not receive any kind of deep education about how this all occurred. Which in and of itself is an apocalypse because it is the truth being strategically swept under the rug. Alas, it was an uncovering like what we’re seeing in Gaza today. The apocalypse uncovered the nature of the American colonization project and it was a violent one. 

And through it all, though, Indigenous peoples are still here. And that’s something we should all be paying attention to.

“If there is something you can learn from Indigenous people,” says Estes, “it’s what it’s like to live in a post-apocalyptic society.”

Indigenous peoples are living, breathing examples of resilience and resistance. Gerald Vizenor, Anishanaabe writer and scholar calls this “survivance,” which, in “Manifest Manners,” he defined as “an active sense of presence, the continuance of native stories, not as mere reaction, or a survivable name…Native survivance stories are…renunciations of dominance, tragedy, and victimry.”

We are witnessing peoples living and surviving and resisting their way into being and living their true selves in a post-apocalyptic scenario.

Why this is important in reenvisioning what “The Apocalypse” means is that it’s not just one catastrophic moment. When we see that it has already happened and know that it is currently happening in places such as Gaza and all around the world with climate change, we can see that it is not the end. It is a crossroad.

At this crossroad we must assert ourselves as having agency over our future. And in that, in this moment of uncovering–of war, of climate catastrophe–we also have the agency to speak our truth, to demand action by those who do have power, and at the same time try to preserve all that is good about this world. We can create a better future right now before more unnecessary lives are lost. 

We don’t have to just accept that the apocalypse is here just as we don’t have to accept the apocalypse as “the end.”