Turn on the History Channel and you will find shows such as “Doomsday Preppers,” about people who prepare themselves for when disaster strikes. But what about the other side, the people who want to cause disaster? Yes, these people actually exist – they’re called “doomsters.” They’re the ones who embrace the idea of the world ending, and they want to be the one who makes it happen. In the doomster’s minds, everyone is excited about December 21st, 2012, and they’re just trying to give the people what they want.
Author Brian D’Amato explores this subject in his book series titled “The Sacrifice Game Trilogy.” The first book of the trilogy, In the Courts of the Sun, was released in 2009 and takes place during the spring of 2012. The novel follows Jed DeLanda, a descendant of the Maya who is an expert of an ancient Mayan practice known as the “Sacrifice Game,” which calculates all possible outcomes of a given situation in order to present an educated portrait of the future. When word comes of a threat to unleash something deadly on the world on December 21st, Jed is recruited by a company that has an idea of how to find out who is behind the supposed attacks. The idea is for Jed’s consciousness to be projected onto the mind of an ancient Mayan ruler, essentially meaning that he is to go back in time. The idea behind this is so Jed can learn the secrets of the Sacrifice Game in order to ascertain the identity of the doomsday terrorist. At the end of the novel, however, Jed plays the Sacrifice Game long into the future and decides that the world must end on December 21st. And he must be the one to do it.
The second book in the series, The Sacrifice Game, was released in the summer of 2012 and picks up with Jed outlining his plan to end the world. His rationale for this is that while playing the Sacrifice Game, he realized the horrid nature of life. Jed claims that while playing the Game he spoke to the souls of the unborn, and they told him they don’t want to be born because of all the pain and sorrow of life. Jed realized that all the joys that currently exist within life will continue to diminish until there is no joy left in the world at all. He truly believes that by ending the world, he is actually doing the world a favor by saving it from an eternity of pain and suffering. What really makes this novel interesting is the fact that the part of Jed’s mind that went back in time is still in the past, and doesn’t realize the present Jed is the person he’s trying to stop. Consciousness projection is a relatively new concept and this series is truly a revolution in science-fiction literature.
Currently, there is little information about the third installment in the series, save for the fact that there will be one. Neither a name for the book nor a release date have been announced.
So, is Jed right in his rationale to end the world? Is it up to him to decide whether or not future generations of people should have the right to live? From a moral standpoint, most people would immediately answer “no.” Most people probably don’t like the idea of the world ending. They don’t like the idea of their future children and grandchildren never being able to have the chance to live. Jed wants to save the people of the future from years of constant suffering, but isn’t suffering a part of life? Jed would agree with this, but he believes that in time, life will only be suffering. There will be no joy at all. That is what Jed is trying to prevent. If Jed is wrong in this assumption that life will be reduced to constant suffering, then obviously he’s wrong in trying to end the world.
But what if he’s right? What if all the joy in life does disappear in years to come? Is that a world worth saving? Once again, most people will choose in favor of saving the world. They want their future children and grandchildren to experience life, just as they did. But in a world where there is only pain, is that really what life is about? In a world where there is only pain, is life a gift or a punishment? Is this a world we want our children and grandchildren living in?
This is the mindset of the doomster. They don’t view what they’re trying to do as destroying the world, they view it as saving the world. They truly believe they’re saving the world from an eternity of constant pain and suffering. Some people may think of doomsters as sick and twisted killing machines; some may think of them as the only people that see the world clearly.
But who’s right?
Whether the world ends on December 21st, 2012 or not, the answer to that question probably will not be answered during this lifetime.
Brian D’Amato’s books, “In the Courts of the Sun” and “The Sacrifice Game,” can be found in most bookstores.
