Why is the concept of the end of the world so hard for us to grasp? Every time the idea is mentioned, it is swept aside as folly, stigmatized as the lunacy of conspiracy theorists, or said to be better left to the theologians of the world as though only the 'enlightened' would be able to see it coming.
I don't need clergy or an ancient calendar to tell me that we stand on the edge of the precipice, and that it wouldn't take more than a brisk wind of change to plunge us into it. The signs are all around us. Not biblical teachings, or predictions from beyond the grave. Step back and view the world as a whole. Set up an RSS feed and monitor news from around the globe. No... these are not the actions and tragedies that make up the body of our decline. Rather, they are the precursors... the stage is being set.
Famine, drugs wars, the wars for control of oil, fresh water shortages, global climate change, financial collapse around the world, ethnic cleansing, centuries-old religious wars... and much much more. There is so much more on the line right now than there was decades ago. Consider this... WWII nearly destroyed europe and asia... and it very well could have. The allies got very lucky on many occasions. Were things to have turned in Hitler's favor, Germany may well have had an atomic device.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Hitler-won-atomic-bomb-race-but-couldnt-drop-it/2005/03/04/1109700677446.html
Ultimately, a handful of missteps and misfortunes kept the Nazis from the momentum and time they needed. Why mention this? Because if it HAD come to pass, how much longer would the war have lasted... and how many atomic devices of various types would have been used? Would Nazi Germany shared the plans with Japan? Would we have faced atomic dirty bomb kamikaze pilots?
That scenario alone indicates the will and the means for complete mutual destruction. Now throw this in the mix. Overlay this scenario on today's wars... North Korea and Iran fighting the west for control of Asian and the oil. Who would China side with? And Israel with it's nukes? Other Arab nations?
What if it were something even more precious... like food or water? Both are commodities controlled by the few and necessary for the many. Climate change has already created drought and famine, and it has only begun to reshape the planet.
We now have more countries than ever before in possession of nukes. The poverty rate is increasing exponentially at a rate that can be measured in weeks and months, not years and decades. Never have so few held so much wealth and power, while so many suffer.
So I put to you the question again... Why is the concept of the end of the world so hard for us to grasp? Perhaps I should say, the end of human civilization as we know it, or even altogether. That way hopefully we can avoid confusion with the fire and brimstone, four horseman scenario.
The bottom line is we have the means of our destruction readily available, and every day we prove that we are as a species willing to sink even lower in the pursuit of wealth and power. We become more violent, more tolerant of the violence against us in it's myriad forms, more accepting of a fundamental lack of a moral compass. Truth, honor, decency, respect... these are nothing more than anachronistic tags. Tags for behaviors that by and large have been so twisted and co-opted into posturing, patriotism, and pandering that they no longer resemble or represent their true nature. They have lost all meaning for most.
Why then doubt our ability to end ourselves? Because we want to believe our own press... that all of the morality tales both ancient and contemporary are a true diagram of us. That somehow at the end of the day, no matter how horrible we are to each other... no matter what terrible, unspeakable things we do... that somehow we'll always find a moral center in the end. We want to believe that we are somehow these noble creatures that sometimes lose our way, but ultimately do the right thing.
And that's our disconnect. Because that's a load of crap. There is darkness in all of us... we deny it but it's true. That denial will be our downfall.
I believe that there is more darkness in the best of us, than there is light in ALL of the worst of us. And the worst of us hold all of the cards. It won't be long before the best of us call upon that 'darkness', that primal side to defend what little is left for us... or turn on each other and fight over the scraps.
WE are the 'antichrist'. If we can't accept that this sort of thing can happen, and accept our roles in getting us there, we will be the instrument of our own destruction. Think decades, not centuries.
Depressing, yes. But take a long, hard look around you and around the world. Then ask yourself the hard questions.
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