The Rhetoric of the Secular Apocalypse

Abstract: Many recent studies observe that the religious genre of apocalypse has been adapted to secular purposes. In observing examples of secular apocalypses, researchers typically locate them in contexts that are nevertheless concerned with spiritual and mystical matters. In contrast, this essay demonstrates that secular apocalyptic rhetoric is also utilized in the official discourse of scientific experts and government representatives. Through a close analysis of official documents on the topics of anthropogenic climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic (two urgent issues of public policy that are framed as agents of global cataclysm), I demonstrate the ways that experts appropriate religious forms of rhetoric to persuade audiences to accept the measures proposed by authorities. In the process, the essay identifies the rhetorical features of the secular apocalyptic subgenre in contradistinction to its religious predecessor. Ultimately, this study exposes the ways that secular officials – whose power is justified on the grounds of a purportedly objective, rational, empiricism that is opposed to mysticism – make use of persuasive strategies drawn from traditions that do not conform to the standards of scientific epistemology.