Despite being a big fan of those apocalyptic fictions as a young man and secretly wishing for the end of everything, I didn't anticipate what that would mean or how it would come or how long it would take. Unlike fictions where aliens, or an infection, or nuclear war, or some unknown terror bring the end, the true end will come through the very nature of humanity ourselves. Our predilection for selfishness. Our ease with which we anger. Our misapplied patriotism. Our general stupidity and aversion to intelligence. The dullest mocking and jeering while educated, literate ones attempt to teach and warn of coming perils. People rejecting that which is in their best interest while gleefully embracing those whose policies pander to their fears and prejudices.