Faith in the leaders of religion has rebounded since the late 1980s. The President's approval rating is just about the highest it's been. To me, it's some indication of a doomsday wish, perhaps a desire for some kind of socio- cultural rebirth. This endism syndrome, according to Mircea Eliade in Cosmos and History , afflicts all cultural orders. Societies, like people, must shed the old in order to become the new.
Endings are preludes to regeneration and new beginnings.
There are a number of commonalities among all endings , whether they be the conclusion of a meal, an evening of socializing with friends, or of a human life. Endings occasion special insight, which undoubtedly derives from the supposed veracities revealed from death-beds and from the wisdom of the old. We see this power of endings in the arts, as in the resolutions of musical scores and the denouements of literature and drama. Not surprisingly given their power, endings are increasingly manmade and harnessed as mechanisms of social control. Thus the proliferation of deadlines in our everyday lives.