Facing the Apocalypse

A thought experiment that can help you live more wisely.

Famed psychiatrist Irv Yalom’s book, Staring at the Sun, asks us to look at life’s most difficult aspects, especially our death.

While we may be aware of near-term threats like getting run over by a bus or acquiring a rare fatal disease, most people tend to view death as distant, the final stage of old age. No matter how much we hear about terrorism, we feel it’s likely to be small-ball: blow up a bus, bar, or bar-mitzvah. The chance of that killing us is tiny.

But as weapons of mass destruction — biological, chemical, nuclear, and cyber — become more powerful, more miniaturized, and less expensive, the Apocalypse no longer has near-zero probability.

For example, we could simply have that much forewarned nuclear war.

It needn’t even require a government. A lone-wolf alienated infectious disease doc could fill a vial with the highly communicable smallpox, board a bus at an international airline terminal’s parking lot, open a briefcase and thus shielded, open the vial for all the passengers to inhale right before they disperse across the globe. By the time the 14-day incubation period yielded to the horrific disease, it would be too late to do much about it.

Or more certain to cause a demi- or full-blown Apocalypse would be a team of humankind haters who are infrastructure insiders: the financial system (for example, the U.S. Treasury Dept), electrical grid, water supply, plus a maker of truck-mounted nukes and the aforementioned infectious disease doc. At an agreed-on time, they could simultaneously corrupt the software,detonate nuke-toting trucks, and release biovirus in a dozen airports’ parking-lot buses.

The chance of such an concatenation is tiny but the idea encourages a bit of self-reflection. If the Apocalypse were to happen this week, how would you spend the time? How about if it were a year from now?

But assuming The Apocalypse isn’t imminent, does it offer implications for how you should live: regarding your work life? Relationships? Recreation? Use of money? What you consider important?

What might I do? If I had a year until The End, I’d work the same amount but replace some slow-improving clients with writing projects likely to make a bigger difference. I’d spend more time alone. I’d give away my money to individuals for whom it would make a difference — So what if it’s not tax-deductible. I’d probably try hallucinogens for the first time. I’d redouble my efforts to be kind to even the moderately deserveable and I’d avoid the miscreants.

What would you do? You’re more likely to take action if you write it down.

Career and personal advisor Dr. Marty Nemko can be reached at mnemko@comcast.net.

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