Doomsday Is Not Entertainment

September 11, 2001 (Photo credit: wallyg)

In the decade since planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into buildings and fields on the East Coast on September 11, 2001, killing around 3000 people, wars have been declared and civil liberties have been trampled on, all in the name of keeping us safe.  And we wondered what other disaster might befall us.

Hollywood has been more than happy to help with that one.  Since 9/11/01, there have been movies, TV shows and video games depicting various forms of the apocalypse:  alien invasions, the year 2012, the aftermath of nuclear war, zombies, asteroids the size of Australia, killer epidemics, environmental calamities, and so on.  There's even a new TV show imagining what would happen if the lights would go out on the world for good.

Disaster movies and TV shows--both serious and cheesy--have been with us since the Cold War 1950s.  It's one thing to take your gamma ray monster and cheaply-made flying saucer with your popcorn.  It's quite another to witness the end of Life As We Know It in 3-D and high definition.  Times have changed.  Life has gotten more serious and depressing to take this genre as simply entertainment.

For instance, as you watch aliens obliterate Los Angeles or New York, do you wonder how the loss of those two cities would affect the national economy and its culture?  What would happen to the country if Washington is taken over by a dictatorship, if it isn't destroyed first?  When flesh-eating zombies attack your neighborhood, how would you protect yourself and your family?

If you're a devotee of "Batman", "Superman", or any of those other movies featuring costumed action figures and villians, do you ever wonder what life must be like for the average citizens of Metropolis or Gotham City?

The point is that the hero--usually some ordinary shlub forced into a dangerous situation by sheer circumstance--ends up saving the world from further calamity.  But only after thousands of people have already died, including the hero's supermodel wife/love interest and cute 12-year old child.

It's hard to be cheerful after seeing something like that.  It's also that way if you have no intention of seeing the movie or program in question, but you see countless ads for it on TV and become depressed because you're the type who tends to believe the disaster they're promoting is breaking news.

And there are some people who really do think that way.  In a recent poll, respondents said they would trust President Barack Obama instead of Mitt Romney to lead the country in case of an alien attack.  The Centers for Disease Control even offers information on what to do in case of a zombie invasion.

What we should be worried about, even a year after the death of Osama bin Laden, are terrorists who smuggle dirty bombs or nuclear weapons into the country, the threat of cyber war that would take out our ability to use computers, and lone gunmen who shoot up movie theaters and shopping malls.  We can't depend on guys in costumed underwear, or even the military to save us from these threats.

What happened eleven years ago on September 11, 2001 went far beyond anything Hollywood script writers could have dreamed of.  Real people were killed--men, women, children--as the World Trade Center towers came down on live television.  Those who tried to recover what was lost also died.  Now we are all trying to move on with our lives.  And what Hollywood puts on the big screen, on your TVs, and in your computers isn't helping us heal.  It's only a movie.  Isn't it?