The "end of..." You name it.

Although millenarians have gone away, presumably only to reemerge in 2099, we are well-along in the new millennium, one which apparently has not swayed from the anxiety of the last age. You can tell by the hyperbolic titles of books and other media marked by the irrevocable phrase end of in the title.

Hyperbole is a type of trope or figure of speech marked by exaggeration or overstatement. Hyperbole may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, and is not meant to be taken literally (unless you are Francis Fukuyama, see below). (Concise Oxford Dictionary).

Perhaps it's the hyper anxious age we are living in, but quite a few book titles, and other media titles suggest a finality to many things we value from the food we eat (Paul Roberts and Thomas Pawlick) to the ultimate political configuration of human culture.

Most of the authors use hyperbole for the traditional purpose of gaining attention to a serious subject, although one, stunningly, holds nothing but literal intentions. (Again, see Francis Fukuyama, below).

In a book apparently written by two authors, Thomas Pawlick and Paul Roberts, The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply, the author(s) describe a "system entrusted to meet our most basic needs (that) is failing dramatically... (and is) growing less and less compatible with the billions of consumers that system was built to serve."

Though the system has proven productive over the last half century, it currently "has reached a point of dangerously diminishing returns (with) ...vegetables and meat (providing less) nutritional quality. Overproduction is so routine that nearly one billion people are now overweight or obese worldwide...one billion (people), roughly one in every seven of us—can't get enough to eat. In some of the hardest-hit regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of a single nutrient—vitamin A—has left more than 5 million children permanently blind."

More, "Pawlick exposes an alarming trend in the food available in our grocery stores. This is not an argument about unhealthy, processed foods, rather it exposes the problems with all foods, including fruits and vegetables that people commonly assume are healthy." Esteemed writers on the subject such as Michael Pollan and Bill McKibben have praised the book.

Thomas Pawlick also wrote a book with the title, The End of Food.

More books or other media with the phrase the end of in the title include:

The End of the Internet strikes a humorous tone: "Thank you for visiting the End of the Internet. There are no more links. You must now turn off your computer and go do something productive.

The End of Suburbia, a movie that discusses the dwindling supply of cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels and its effect on society.

The End of History, by Francis Fukuyama, referred to above. Fukuyama seems to be the only author mentioned taking a literal position. (From Wikipedia): In his The End of History and the Last Man, "Fukuyama argues that the advent of Western liberal democracy may signal the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the final form of human government" (emphasis mine).

"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalizing of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." (quoted from "The End of History?" 1989)

This thesis conflicts strongly with Karl Marx's version of the "end of prehistory." According to his philosophy of history (historical materialism), this is a time when class distinctions no longer exist, and "real" human history begins. Fittingly, Fukuyama seems to have been influenced by the prominent Straussian political philosopher Allan Bloom, who taught Fukuyama.

What might we conclude from these titles? If we may venture a psycho historic analysis: We may truly be in a heap of trouble and writers, those who sit back, research, and deliberate, might be telling us something, at least those using end of figuratively in their titles. Otherwise, why bother.

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