Apocalypse Panel - Question 3

It's that time again!  The panel has suggested another question for its members to answer, and this time around it is:

What is the most important element in an apocalyptic story?

This is a tough one, as the obvious answer that might instantly pop to mind is the "human" element, or character.  But is this completely true?  Sure, we need to connect emotionally with the characters, we need to feel their pain, their fear, their suffering, and we need to watch them grow, develop and, most importantly, succeed and triumph!  However, there is another element to these tales that is always there - hovering in the background constantly, an almost subliminal image that we see occassionally, without really seeing it at all...

a reminder of THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF MAN.

In every apocalyptic tale you can think of, our species, in one way or another, battles immense and impossible forces... natural disasters, viruses, atomic destruction, threats from another world and so on and so forth.  These "enemies" to the survival of our race are characters in their own right.  They are enormous and seemingly impossible to defeat.  They can (and do) wipe us out in an instant, bring us to our knees, remind us of our insignificance in the face of the greater universe, of Mother Nature and of man's own self-destructive greed. 

When we read these tales of woe, and as we focus on our hero as he battles valiantly to defeat the odds against him, somewhere in the background we are reminded that the only reason he is there in the first place is because of our own fragility and misplaced sense of superiority!  We're ultimately nothing more than an ant colony at the mercy of the elements around us, yet we parade around as if we are gods.  We overpopulate, we tear down forests, we rip up the ground - all in the name of so-called progress and because we believe we are the top of the food chain, and untouchable. 

Unfortunately, it is only after we are slapped around a bit that we are reminded otherwise, and, hopefully humbled.  But as is human nature, we soon forget our place in the universe again - until one day the "enemy" returns once more to remind us, and we blame him or it or them for our sorry state of affairs, forgetting that this very morning we may have stared the real enemy in the face while shaving at the bathroom mirror.