Lately, I've been reading 1 Enoch, a work characteristic of Second Temple period apocalypticism. As a radical leftist, I found many passages about impending judgment, good and evil, and the frequent and zealous denunciations of the ruling class very reminiscent of modern left-wing political discourse.
It's becoming increasingly accepted that we are living in an age of societal decline, with many expressing concerns about the deterioration of our cultural, economic and legal systems. This same concern is a central part of apocalypticism, which is best understood within the specific historical and social contexts that gave rise to it, and can be interpreted as commentary on those conditions.
'The Book of the Watchers', the first part of many in 1 Enoch, establishes the source of human civilization's corruption, as stemming from the misdeeds of fallen angels. The various accounts given in the text disagree on the story's details but clearly recognize these events as the beginning of humanity's decadent trajectory.
The book is presenting the antediluvian era, much like the way we look back on the period between the late 80s and early 2010s through rose-tinted glasses. Nowadays, even teenagers grow up reminiscing about a period they didn't even live through. Neocities itself is a community trying to hold on to a bygone practice of internet participation.
Some have even argued that we are experiencing a neo-dark age, pointing out the similarities between our time and the Early Middle Ages. Other people even embrace the Medieval era's historical connotations too, such as the prospect of an approaching renaissance or societal revolution. This eschatological sentiment is a central motif of the latter parts of 1 Enoch.
Although the exact origins of 1 Enoch's 'The Book of Parables' remain a subject of scholarly debate, the text is rich with condemnations of kings and elites (e.g. 38:5). These themes, along with the vivid depictions of punishment for the wicked and the coming of the Son of Man are all esoteric critiques of their conditions and background.
Similar topics are also frequently present in contemporary political discourse. For example, the popular term "late-stage capitalism" is in itself loaded with eschatological speculation, about the end of the current world order, and is an implicit critique of the capitalist mode of production. The messiah's coming and his judgment also has parallels in today's notion of an "AI Bubble" and it popping in the near future, causing irreparable damage to the tech industry.
'The Animal Apocalypse' also contains condemnations of priestly elites (90:7) in 1 Enoch. People of this class were the social, political, and spiritual leaders of ancient Jewish society. This function is partially fulfilled by today's social media empires governing world-wide discourse through algorithms and AI agents. Like the religious elites in apocalyptic narratives, so is the modern tech ruling class's legitimacy targeted by modern leftist rhetoric.
Such left-wing discussions usually frame the perceived societal decline as pointing to an emerging new world order, with which global elites will fall and a better, more egalitarian system will take its place. This is also comparable to 1 Enoch's references to Gentiles accepting Judaism at The End of Days in 'The Animal Apocalypse' (90:38). For instance, Marxists will often talk similarly about "international revolution" and "class consciousness".
Apocalyptic eschatology functions less as prediction of future events than as a way of organizing people in periods of perceived crisis. It serves as a unifying framework, identifying enemies, and framing systemic collapse as both inevitable and morally necessary. As such, the truth value of these frameworks is secondary to their social function of strengthening civil resilience during times of crisis.
religion politics