I'm thinking that perhaps the use of apocalyptic narratives actually makes it harder for people to make gradual changes. And that's partly because when you're locked into a narrative where the choices are either apocalypse or denial, it becomes much harder to deal with reality.

So on the one hand there's the view that things will always carry on as they have done - which will always be popular for a generation that has had a minimum of real social, economic and military dislocation.

On the other there's a kind of unconscious counterpart in Stories of Apocalypse.

In the middle there are real problems which fall into a psychological blindspot because dealing with them realistically would mean stepping out the narrative.

And since there are pay-offs for both extremes - avoidance of anxiety with denial, and satisfaction of revenge and punishment fantasies for apocalypse - the realistic option of dealing maturely with real problems is never quite as popular as it could be.