Apocalyptic Anxiety

American apocalypticism has a much more recent history, from shaker predictions the world would end in 17 94 to famed radio evangelist harold camping's calculations that the apocalypse was coming in 19 94. But i think something else is at work too, something involving humanity's astonishing capacity for understanding the past and imagining the future. Part of our fears about the world ending must stem from the strange reality that for each of us, our world will end and soon. How could the world possibly survive the death of its single most important inhabitant? Me?