In response to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s Oct. 25 op-ed “Addicted to the Apocalypse,” Jerry Lembcke, associate professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross, addressed the use of the fear-inducing rhetoric of apocalypse imagery to describe a society of uncertainty. The cultural phenomenon has boomed to such an extensive degree, Lembcke noted, that the New York Times has used the word “apocalypse” in its news stories more than 1,100 times in the last five years.
“Today’s apocalyticism is an end-of-empire phenomenon emanating from homes, workplaces, farms, and places of worship, cultivated by Hollywood since the 1970s, and nurtured by the neo-conservative witch-hunt for radicals and liberals responsible for the loss of the war-at-home during the 1980s and 1990s that has grown, now, to become the dominant American political narrative,” said Lembcke.
This “Holy Cross in the News” item is by Sara Bovat ’14.
