"Last of Us," and "War of the Worlds" use so many similar tropes. We happen to be alternating between them in the past few weeks.

Both are #alien invasion stories, one set of aliens is from Earth (#cordyceps) and the other from a distant star system. Both modify human neurology/DNA and alter behavior. Both have a young woman who's immune to the invasive depredations. Both involve the death of the vast majority of the human population. Both are well-done and thoughtful treatments of this material. And even though they are both terribly dark and apocalyptic, both use this well-worn theme to explore what's good about humanity.

I do wish we had more films and TV series that didn't succumb to the tempting narrative that humanity is #doomed.

Where are the stories that celebrate humans finding a way through our current troubles?

And I'm not talking about Star Trek.

#StarTrek is too easy. A mid 21st century nuclear war is hand-waved away as the catalyst that finally got humans to cooperate globally and establish contact with galactic civilization.

Bullshit x 1,000!

That's a calamity that in the Star Trek timeline is still looming ahead of us, and there's probably a 0.0001% chance that we'd survive such a calamity with any capacity for building spaceships or doing anything but savagely killing off the remaining survivors, as humans have always done.

If there is any hope for us, it's in the survival of our institutions. And above all the celebration of learning and accountability. Instead we're moving quickly in the opposite direction.

Two problems with cinematic apocalypses:

1) They distract from the reality that humans are their own worst enemy. We're far more likely to destroy ourselves than be conquered by aliens or fungus.

2) If we envision apocalyptic futures, that's what we expect and subconsciously it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Think of how much the general population recoils from any near-future portrayal of a good society.

Positive futures are cynically tarred by critics as "#utopias" meaning "no place" or "things that don't happen." Try to imagine a popular film or TV franchise where the robots are good and helpful, and don't have an agenda to secretly try to kill or manipulate you. Try to imagine one where governments and authorities are the good guys and we can trust them and we hold them accountable. Try to imagine actually solving climate change, cooling the Earth and replenishing the environment.

You can't.

Because those futures have been stolen from us. Not just by the #feudalists and #oligarchs, but also by the world's creative community. Who've signed on to every aspect of dystopia, rather than being truly bold to step out on a limb to show humanity fulfilling its positive potential.

We're drawn to stories about extreme #doom because we're scared of what we're actually facing in the real world. At least if we imagine a worst-case future apocalypse, we won't be disappointed by anything short of that.