Disappearing into the sunset of another brave new world

The credits roll. The hero and/or heroine (fling in a plural or two
as appropriate) mount their horses, or link their arms, or climb aboard,
or do something else redolent of completion, and disappear into the
sunset. Some measure of victory lies behind them, even if more battles
might lie ahead.

It is what happens at the end of a thousand films
or television programmes – not all, but most. Sitting on a long
aeroplane flight, as was my recent situation, you catch a glimpse of it
up and down the aisles. But review the programmes on offer, and a
slightly more nuanced story emerges. The vast majority of films presume
upon a painful, dystopian, or even (favourite phrase) post-apocalyptic
setting for the action. Despite a succession of happy-ish endings (even
temporary ones, where the hero[es] wander on to the next conflict in the
dystopian haze) the working assumption is that man is a fairly
miserable creature.

It may be struggle and conflict. It may be
sickness and disease. It may be disasters natural or man-made. It may be
broken relationships of battered minds and bodies. Whatever it may be,
the vast majority of these films seem to begin with evil in the
ascendancy. Of course, they often end on a high note, but high notes
don’t work when you need another slice of devastation and grimness
against which to set your next hero. It is a matter of interest of me
that no matter what denials our cultures cultivate against the fact of
original sin and the depravity of our nature, it is what they assume
when they begin to consider or anticipate the future.

What seems
to be the norm is a fairly realistic (biblical) view of human nature,
with a desperate desire for someone who rises above the norm and who can
therefore overcome the dead ends into which our nature drives us. We
struggle to argue overmuch with the first – it might at least give us at
least some point of contact as we seek to expose the proud folly of
sinful man. With regard to the second, it is a tragic case of fallen men
looking in all the wrong places.