The Turner Diaries, by Andrew Macdonald, and the film, “The Forbin Project” offer insight into a unique apocalyptic experience. They deal with controversial issues, which can have consequences of epic proportions, as we later learn. I find that the controversy excites very narrowly defined extremes, and it is these exact ramifications that encompass the truth and individuality consistent with apocalyptic nature.

In many ways, The Turner Diaries uphold the construction of a generic apocalyptic tale. The political turmoil present in The Turner Diaries provides a source of disorder, which allows us to understand the beginning of the end of this era or world in which they live. We learn of all the upheaval brought on by the Cohen Act and how it imposed upon citizens’ basic rights under the law. With the onset of the massacre and the robbery, rape, and crime that corresponded to the government’s enforcement of the Cohen Act, it becomes very easy for the reader to relate to Earl Turner and his Organization. As a third party audience, we do not have much difficulty passing the border from political institution and establishment to the basic needs and inalienable rights of a human people. For us, this is a matter of sensitivity and personal attachment. In fact, while reading these diary entries, I kept questioning how more people didn’t identify themselves as the “illegals” or “legals” of the Organization. However, the fact that not all the citizens chose to support the Revolutionary cause suggests that perhaps, things weren’t as clear-cut as the author makes them out to be. Perhaps, his writing simplifies matters to the utmost, and denies the discrepancies that occurred as plans made by the System were related before the public eye. Then again, in some instances the narrator does acknowledge the fallacies that blinded the general people. He says that citizens corrupted by the mass media “no longer believed in the fight against the System’s tyranny because they were convinced that it was only going after racists, fascists, and other anti-social elements”. But later he questions himself when he asks, “Can we justly blame what has happened to us entirely on deliberate subversion, carried out through the insidious propaganda of the controlled mass media, the schools, the churches, and the government? Or must we place a large share of the blame on inadvertent decadence – on the spiritually debilitating life style into which the Western people have allowed themselves to slip in the twentieth century?” Interestingly enough, Macdonald too resolves back to the core of this apocalyptic narrative, by identifying all the evils in society, extending the blame from political to societal corruption. Thus, while the Revolutionaries are plotting to overthrow the government, they are inadvertently overthrowing all the principles of this “decadent” liberalism that lives on in the System’s subjects.

Violence was another key motif that lies at the backbone of this text. We know that the Apocalypse as presented in this text, will be a catastrophic event that will annihilate a great mass of people along with the government. This does not strike out with any particular importance since this defines the plot of many apocalyptic narratives that we have previously been exposed to. Glorious Appearing, for example, exemplified the exact same strucure, in which the fundamentalists were fighting against Carpathia, who too symbolized the Antichrist as does the System in The Turner Diaries. However, what does stand out in Macdonald’s writing is the grand scale of violence that precedes this ultimate catastrophe. Moreover, the fact that this violence is linked to the Revolutionaries is even more surprising. Of course, we cannot believe that the Organization can ever bring about a blissful utopia without creating some havoc along the way. Earl, himself , acknowledges that “there is no way we can destroy the System without hurting many thousands of innocent people-no way”. However, it is hard to believe that there was no other way to rebel against the System and prove the strength of the Organization besides launching such the explosive detonator in the FBI building that harmed so many innocent people in the process. This just proves, yet again, that these so called “fundamentalists” are so dedicated to their cause, that extremism and violence unite as one.

The movie, “The Forbin Project” presents the Apocalypse in light of science fiction. It is interesting to view the enemy, or point of interest, as a man-made opponent. In the film, Dr. Forbin creates the Colossal, a machine that has the ability to calculate and reason at greater measures than the human mind ever could. The Colossal eventually overpowers all, including it’s own creator. The audience is overcome with fear and anxiety as they witness the gradual rise of this manmade machine take precedence over brightest intellectuals of the world, and obtain hold of the fate of the entire universe. The idea that we can create our human apocalypse is not completely new to us. After all, the threat of nuclear war and mass destruction is also attributable to the power of human science and our very own efforts at technological advance.

It is particularly interesting how the Colossal machine is not only personified, but practically deified as well. That we can deify an object both inanimate and inherently destructive leads me to wonder just how particular we are at our classifications of apocalyptic characters. And when put that way, does any of it really matter once a whole people is obliterated from the Earth?

The element of romance also pervades throughout both “The Forbin Project” and The Turner Diaries. In both the film and the novel, the man leads as the main source of power. While Dr. Forbin loses control to the Colossal as the film progresses, Earl seems to gain prominence in the novel. Regardless of these changes, man is still the main target, representing this patriarchal system. In the movie, At the same time, Dr. Forbin’s mistress also plays a significant role during her nightly visits as she is his sole connection to the outside world. In The Turner Diaries, Katherine has a fairly important position in the Organization, and thus, she too identifies with female prominence. Both women display bravery in these roles. Both women, however, are reverted back to feminine inferiority in the sense that they are seen undressed by the men before either have any sexual relations. This resonates with a theme of seduction. Furthermore, Earl even uses the term “feminism” to undermine the strength of the Liberal party. “Liberalism is an essentially feminine, submissive world view. Perhaps a better adjective than feminine is infantile. It is the world view of men who do not have the moral toughness, the spiritual strength to stand up and do single combat with life,” he says. Equating feminism with infantry further reduces the role of women here. Romantically, we can conclude that both the film and the text waver between traditional and modern gender roles. Still, I would say that even though men are more prominent, the complex relationships that these women form with them certainly adjusts the path of the apocalyptic tale, proving that they do have great significance in the backbone of these apocalyptic narratives.

Both “The Forbin Project” and The Turner Diaries are controversial works. They deal with ethical issues that are not always in favor or being reported or exposed. Whether it explores political controversy or invents an object of manmade doom, the apocalypse finds cultural resonance and social links to all elements of society, enabling it to prevail in the face of all critique.