Right - because authors never write "here's what it looks like when the world ends" they write "here's what it looks like when a more attractive future unfolds." "Attractive" is usually some form of empowerment of the underdog involving epic triumph that would not be possible under normal circumstances. This is not because they're stupid. This because people want escapist fantasy and they'd love to imagine a future in which they take every driver clogging the expressway, every sarariman clogging the elevator, every chav on the tube and murder them violently with a claw hammer. We'd much rather be Mad Max running around with a chainsaw and a supercharged Chevy Nova than Jason Robards picking over the remains of his porch while he dies of radiation poisoning. People cosplay Mad Max because it's fun. People advise against watching Threads because it is grindingly, hopelessly accurate down to the statistics typed as scene breaks. Here's Mad Max.