I went to the movies last night to see 2012 – because you really need to see world-wide destruction on a big screen. Unfortunately it wasn’t in IMAX, but I sat up close so it seemed like it. Last week, I also watched “9” which is the animated aftermath of world-wide destruction and I finished reading The Road, which is the non-animated aftermath of world-wide destruction. The movie of that book is out now and I will see it when I get home. Toss in the Terminator movie, the awful Knowing and a slew of zombie films and you can vaguely see a pattern here.

Vaguely I said. Shakespeare said the stage was to be “as a mirror up to Nature”, but that has never been Hollywood’s forte. Hollywood mines a fad until it is but another dead horse beaten into a gutter and left lifeless. Meaning this could just be world-wide destruction’s time in the pit and all will be talking babies and cute puppies next year.

But it does give me pause to see all this carnage in the first full year of our new Depression and our new President. Though the destruction is pure Hollywood, one can’t help but look around at this year’s quota of earthquakes, fires, epidemics, tsunamis, tropical storms and – of course – war and wonder where the escapism in all these films. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of special effects and I thoroughly enjoyed the ones I saw last night. But I also spent some time thinking about what I would pack and how quickly I could do it should, you know, something happen…

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