Photo Collage by Lisa Mathias with Images Courtesy of Dane Wirtzfeld

Nihilism, Activism and Fundamentalism.
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The world today is turning into a rather dangerous place for many people. Though for some, it remains the ideal home of mankind. Desperation has slowly crept into the minds of the masses, to the extent that there is virtually no literal value for life, or the importance of human life has been degraded to some extent. On a daily basis, the headlines are always about death, bloodshed and suffering. Terrorism, epidemics, pandemics and catastrophes, are the main dishes on the global news menu. To some extent, there is fear and the diminishing importance of faith. The situation has made people start thinking about the end of times, as the world is continuously becoming uninhabitable.
This scenario is well captured by Richard Eckersley in his article Nihilism, Fundamentalism, or Activism: Three Responses to Fears of the Apocalypse. In this article, Richard opines that there is a deep-seated fear in the minds of people, about the impending as well as the inevitability of the apocalypse, which has pushed people into three directions: towards nihilism, fundamentalism, and activism. He tries advocating for activism as the single source of hope and hence positivity, as opposed to the negativities embodied by nihilism and fundamentalism. The article is compelling as a result of its usage of statistics while it is important to delve much deeper into his interpretations of fear, which is the cause of all the three.
Fear is as broad as it sounds, and also has different applications. It is a psychological or mental perception of something or someone. The fact that it is a perception makes it rather relative, and might, therefore, vary between different individuals. It is also determined by a person’s background, the manner and environment in which he or she was brought up. Among the significant contributors to fear, is religion.
The article above is just on point, relating to religion. It highlights just how apocalyptic fear under the domain of religion, has given rise to fundamentalism. He defines fundamentalism as the ‘retreat to the certainty of dogmatic beliefs…’ (Eckersley, 2007.)He goes on to state that under extreme interpretations of such fears and fundamentalism, then the apocalyptic thoughts and beliefs are born. When such thoughts are combined with religion, such as in Christianity, there is a tendency to relate into rapture, the entirely Christian interpretation of end times.
As earlier stated, fear is broad, and it a symptom of a host of numerous other problems, be they physical or emotional. The physical manifestations of fear include heart aches and anxiety. Subsequently, extreme situations of fear bring about mixed feelings which culminate in depression. When looking at most countries around the globe, depression is a significant problem, in particular among the older generations. In the U.S for example, depression is a big issue. It all arises out of the extreme fear, of the unknown (Spratt, 2016).
Richard’s article fails to capture one aspect of fear that is commonly the trend; the propagation of it, or what is commonly known as the fear tactics. Propagation of fear can result in detriment...