I was born in the latter half of the 1950s, which means I'm old enough to remember a lot of stuff but still young enough to be taken semi-seriously.  I remember watching our neighbors build bomb shelters, duck-and-cover drills in elementary school, and air-raid sirens.  Growing up for me then included the very real possiblity of nuclear annihilation.

Thinking that my generation's attitudes were influenced primarily by events, I decided to investigate this phenomenon with a Jungian emphasis.  A small study was performed, the results of which I will offer here at the conclusion of any discussion.  What follows is my reasoning and "evidence".  Please share your thoughts with me.

Evidence in Support of a Cataclysmic Archetype

Late in his life, Sigmund Freud suggested that organisms possess a death instinct or Thanatos.  According to Freud’s theory, this drive toward self-destruction operates in direct opposition to the self-preservation instinct embodied by his earlier work concerning Eros.
 
Freud’s theories gain credibility if we consider the constant dynamic tension between life and death that individuals experience both physically and psychologically throughout the various stages of human development.  However, the cyclical natures of Eros and Thanatos have far-reaching implications beyond understanding basic human biology and psychology.  These recurring themes can even be applied to the powerful cataclysmic and regenerative forces that
influence all that exists within the Universe.

Significant historical and scientific evidence exists in support of a catastrophic archetype.  From the birth of our Universe, destruction has always preceded the emergence of reworked matter.  Chaos and order operate in tandem within a Jungian-style coniunctio and physical existence evidently would not be possible without the ongoing delicate balance between annihilation and creation.
   
This article will briefly examine the cosmological principals, global and regional cataclysmic events, Western philosophy, and certain religious prophesies that may provide a rational basis for the contemporary obsession with disaster, destruction, and apocryphal predictions.  Although each of us have experienced disaster and destruction in personal ways, many seem to perceive that some larger event is just around the corner, and this may very well be evidence of the archetype at work.

Cosmological and Earth History

Although astronomers and cosmologists disagree on the mechanism behind existence it is generally accepted that the age of the Universe is somewhere between 13.7 and 15.8 billion years and began in a highly ordered, low-entropy state.  The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but can only be altered as to the form or expression of that energy. The implication of a beginning is that something must have existed
beforehand, and the application of the first law of thermodynamics would seem to confirm this suspicion.

Additionally, as a closed system such as our Universe ages, and useable energy is ultimately converted to unusable energy.  For instance, as a log burns, it is converted to heat which is lost to the atmosphere, plus a remnant of inert ash.  This is the principal of increasing entropy or disorder, or the second law of thermodynamics, and we see evidence of this throughout our world.  Living things are born, grow old and die.  Mountains are weathered to dust by relentless erosion.  Civilizations rise and fall.  So too our Universe, and presumable any such structures that existed previously, eventually slow down and cease to operate under increasing entropy.
 
Since energy cannot be destroyed, eventually all unusable energy and inert matter on a cosmological scale coalesce under the unrelenting force of gravity and a new universe is born.  In theory then, our Universe has probably come into existence at the expense of some previous type of universe, and on a grand scale is an example of Eros and Thanatos in operation.

What we do have hard evidence for, through radiometric dating, is the age of our Solar System.  Non-Martian meteorites have been dated at approximately 4.56 billion years, giving an upper limit to the age of our Sun of about 4.6 billion years.  

During a star’s lifetime, hydrogen is fused into helium, and it is only when the supply of hydrogen is exhausted that the star begins to fuse or create the heavier elements, such as helium, carbon, and oxygen.  Evidence from presolar diamonds retained within primitive meteorites suggests that very heavy elements, such as uranium, are most likely created during massive supernova explosions.  Because our Sun contains heavier elements, it is probable that our Sun was preceded by the deaths of at least two stars, the first to create lighter elements, and the second to create heavier elements.
 
Radioactive elements are necessary for life on this planet, as the heat generated from their decay produces Earth’s magnetic field, which shields us from solar and stellar radiation.  The thought that two previous stars were born, lived, and died within our region of space again reinforces the idea that our existence has come through the demise of something else.

Planetary accretion is the process most widely recognized as being responsible for the formation of planets, and can be observed today through meteor and comet impacts, the most recent being the well-documented impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 as it plowed into Jupiter during June of 1994.  Accretion is a very violent affair, destroying not only the impactor, but dramatically altering the structure impacted.

We have further evidence via meteorites found in Antarctica that Mars formed about 4.5 billion years ago.  Yet the oldest rocks found thus far on Earth only date to about 4.4 billion years, a significant difference in geological terms, and also an indicator that something dramatic happened to the Earth.

Lunar rocks brought back by our astronauts have been dated at between 3 to 4.4 billion years, and are composed primarily of Earth-like mantle materials.  Current investigations are centered on a Mars-sized planet delivering a glancing blow to the Earth, and throwing a vast amount of terrestrial material into local space, which eventually became the Moon.  This scenario would account for many unique features of the Moon, most notably the absence of a significant metallic core and its almost circular orbit about the Earth.  A captured body would display a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth.  

What perhaps demonstrates most pointedly that modern forms of life have arisen as a result of prior destruction can be found in geologic evidence of extinction levels events that have been repeatedly visited upon our planet.  The earliest extinction event that we have evidence for occurred about 500 million years ago, and is thought to have resulted from widespread glaciation during the Cambrian-Ordovician transition.  This was followed by the first mass extinction at the Ordovician-Silurian boundary 444 million years ago, which may have been initiated by a gamma-ray burst from a nearby star.  Over 85% of all life perished during the ensuing climate shift.  

About 360 million years ago, nearly 70% of all species were extinguished by multiple bolide impacts during the late Devonian.  This event was followed by the great extinction event 251 million years ago at the Permian-Triassic boundary, which eliminated about 90% of all organisms on this planet, and was probably caused by a combination of intense volcanism and concomitant hypoxic conditions, plus multiple bolide impacts.

Following quickly on the heels of the Permian-Triassic extinction, came the Triassic-Jurassic die-off at around 200 million years ago, which was most likely caused by widespread volcanism during the tectonic separation of the Pangaea supercontinent, and not by the impact of meteoric or cometary bolides.

The most well-known of the extinction events occurred about 65 million years ago at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, where approximately 50% of all species, most notably the dinosaurs, were extinguished due to a combination of asteroid or comet impacts, and massive continental magmatism.  Evidence for most massive of these impacts has been found in the Yucatan Peninsula in the Chicxulub crater.

Today, extinction is again in progress primarily through climatological processes with significant anthropogenic contributions and may prove to be the deadliest of all extinctions ever visited upon the Earth.  Although each of these previous extinction events has given rise to many new species, they have consistently been at the cost of pre-existing life.

Primordial Man

Early hominids had much to contend with to ensure their survival.  Variations in weather patterns brought floods, droughts, severe storms, and seasonal changes.  Volcanoes belched-out poisonous gases, lava, and solid ejecta, which killed both flora and fauna within a wide radius.  Earthquakes and tsunamis significantly altered once familiar terrain.  The oceans rose and fell, sometimes rapidly, due to plate tectonics.  Glaciers advanced and retreated, scouring the land and leaving in their abandoned paths newly carved areas devoid of plant life, but rich in fresh water.

From the Heavens came meteorites, asteroids, and comets that sizzled and popped as they streaked across the skies before colliding with the Earth in tremendous explosions.  Sometimes strange colorful lights could be seen in the night sky, and both the Sun and the Moon seemed at times to be swallowed whole during eclipses.  Small wonder then, that early Man regarded such displays as harbingers of doom, for the world was indeed in a constant state of flux.

Historical Man

Apparently, the oldest record of an apocalyptic ending for the world appears in Zoroastrian writings from about 500 B.C. uncovered in what we now call ancient Persia.  In these documents, the Earth is seen as being destroyed by fire during a time when “…the sun is more unseen and more spotted; the year, month and day are shorter; and the earth is more barren; and the crop will not yield the seed…”.

Empedocles felt that the Universe came into being from undifferentiated and chaotic matter, and would eventually return to that state of disorder.  Plato is recorded as saying that material things are subject to incessant change and ultimate putrefaction, while Aristotle is attributed as saying that “Just as the course of the firmament and each of the stars is a circle, why should not also the coming into being and the decay of perishable things be of such a kind that the same things again come into being and decay?”.

The Mayans believed that the world had been created and destroyed four times before the creation of our current world.  Momentous changes will occur in the year 2012, but that the next world would be the final created world.  Their beliefs were adopted and modified by both the Aztecs and the Toltecs.  The Aztecs foretold that this, the fifth world, was to be the last, and it would be destroyed in a great earthquake.

The Talmud indicates that this world will only last for 6000 years, and that towards the end of this allotted time, the Messiah will appear to rule over Israel.  The collected forces of evil will gather on the plains of Armageddon in a final attempt to wipe out Israel, but Israel will be saved and the ensuing millennium will be one of peace, order, and harmony where everyone will know God personally.

Jesus is said to have appeared to John while he was in exile on the island of Patmos and gave him a special vision concerning end-times, which was recorded as the Book of Revelation.  According to the vision, the world will be shaken to its very foundations during a series of cataclysmic events, but Christ will return towards the end of this time and defeat all forces of evil during a battle on Armageddon’s soil.  According to the text, Christ will rule over the Earth for a thousand years.  The ultimate battle between good and evil will result in the destruction of Earth, but God will send a new Heaven and Earth to replace the old.

The horror and devastation wrought on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are indelibly imprinted on the Japanese people and anyone old enough to remember the bombings, or who have seen footage of the explosions and aftermath.  Those who recall duck-and-cover drills in the 1960s are forever reminded of the fragility of life and how quickly it can be extinguished at the mere pressing of a button.

Inferences

As far as the Universe is concerned, constancy is not the normal state of affairs.  Stellar formation and planetary accretion are very violent events that will continue until the Universe slows down and perhaps even stops expanding as a result of entropy.  The Earth itself has been host to many global extinction level events.  Civilizations have arisen and then collapsed, sometimes dramatically.  Individuals grow old and die.  Does one really need to wonder if annihilation has been pre-programmed into both our genetic and psychic DNA?  

The answer may lie within the very tenacity of life observable on this tiny planet, for if living things had no remembrance of catastrophe, then why would all creatures possess relentless survival instincts?  Why bother with the drive and energy expenditure necessary to procreate, oftentimes prodigiously?  For instance, the milt of herrings during breeding season is sometimes so thick it washes ashore in vast froths that coat nearby beaches, and it wasn’t uncommon for American pioneer women to die of exhaustion after bearing 10 or 12 children.  Only a small percentage of these organisms would survive long enough to breed, but they would survive, and life would continue.

Are we on the verge of another cataclysm?  I think this quite likely, given Man’s predilection for destruction.  And perhaps this is where the cultural and religious definitions of sin and corruption are most pertinent; for in general we neither respect each other nor the world we have been given. 

Is this what requires judgment and retribution from a Supreme Deity?  Is this the essence of the human manifestation of the Catastrophic Archetype?  Are we so out of touch with our very human natures, the qualities that have enabled us to survive thus far, that we can neither reconcile nor control our destructive tendencies in favor of wholeness within ourselves and unity with each other?  In the grand scheme of the Universe, are we just another failed experiment
destined for extinction? 

I believe the archetype is giving us ample notice.  I hope we are sensitive enough to listen and learn.