Apocalypse Not

An investigation into the history, politics, and belief-systems that have shaped human understanding of the ‘end of days’This book is a lively and engaging survey of predictions about the end of the world, along with the failed dreams and nightmares that have clustered around them.For almost three-thousand years apocalypse prophecies have convinced people all over the world that the future is about to give them the world they want instead of the world they already have. But these end of time prophecies splashed across the media in every age have had something else in common: every one of them has been wrong.Among the stories highlighted in Apocalypse Not are the birth of the apocalypse meme out of archaic star myths in the ancient Middle East; the failed end time prophecies of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton, and other famous prophets; and the long and murky road from the Great Pyramid to today's Rapture beliefs. With Greer’s usual sharp and witty insights, Apocalypse Not offers a pertinent analysis of spirituality, the future, and what it means to be human.