Comments on: The meaning of apocalypse

By: soundofrain

soundofrain — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:39:47 +0000

@HauntedHarpsichord (god I love that name) – it must be something innate to human psychology – “this is working (even if only sort of), therefore any change is bad.” Part of the problem with the changes that need to happen is that people can’t imagine them, can’t imagine what life would look like. It’ll help a lot when some good marketing minds start working on that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we did miss the Rapture, given that I don’t think most of the people who believe they qualify for it, actually do.

By: soundofrain

soundofrain — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:36:58 +0000

Oh, and regarding killer microbes – their devastation can *only* happen under the conditions we have now – worldwide urban crowding and lots and lots of high speed travel. Spanish flu only had something like a 2.5% kill rate, it’s just that it infected almost half of everyone on earth.

Most viruses come from animals, and are an animal-human adaptation on the part of the virus. That’s why so many of them come from China, where people live very closely with poultry and pigs. The way we live brings about our catastrophes – that’s my favorite thing of all.

By: soundofrain

soundofrain — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:32:08 +0000

@absurdbeats – When I talk about major change and what *has* to happen, I’m talking about the shift away from a world based on non-renewable energy. It’s going to be rocky. Whether it happens before we’re ready for it, whether we handle it the way we want or are forced to play catch-up, depends on us, which is not a good thing since, as we all know, humans aren’t great at long-term responsibility and taking care of each other.

In a weird way, looking forward to a worldwide apocalypse is really optimistic on my part. It’s the only hope we have to switch to a completely different paradigm. And overall, it’s extremely unlikely that we’ll get our collective act together, whatever happens – but if we’re allowed to follow the path of inertia, we will.

As to whether we’re looking at corporatocracy or The Road, well, time will tell.

By: absurdbeats

absurdbeats — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:33:35 +0000

We’ve talked about this once or twenty times, so you know I share your interest.

Still, I don’t anything *has* to happen.Yeah, there have been apocalypsi? apocalypses [flaming dots exploding into the abyss]? throughout human history, some of which wiped out large portions of the human population. But the catastrophes seem to be precisely that: the emergence of a killer microbe or the appearance of a wayward meteor in a manner almost completely unforeseen.

As to the killer microbes, yes, existing social conditions may have allowed for an easier spread, but the Spanish flu killed everyone, everywhere. That says more about the microbe than the condition.

I tend to think that things will deteriorate, and that social, economic, and political life will become more brutal, more exploitative, and even cheaper than it already is. And here I swing back around toward semi-agreement with you: a lot of this deterioration is down to us, to the short-term and in-denial kind of decisions we have made and continue to make.

But this doesn’t mean, I think, that anything fundamental has to change: I think we humans are quite capable of continuing in our selfish ways, consequences to others be damned. I’m not even sure that less-than-catastrophic consequences to ourselves will lead us to change anything about how we relate to the natural world and to one another.

In short, I think FutureWorld is more likely to look like China (corporate-authoritarian) than ‘The Road.’

That said, I have thought that a fine place to meet the End of the World would be at the Cathedral of St John the Divine—all of those high and sturdy columns tumbling down. And that St John the Divine is credited as the author of ‘Revelations’ makes it even more perfect. . . .

By: HauntedHarpsichord

HauntedHarpsichord — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:05:35 +0000

Very well put.
It’s almost as if the world needs a “kickstart” or some type of revolution, one where we (re-)recognize that the planet and its inhabitants (man and all life) are important, and that there is so much more to happiness and success than just financial gain and wealth.
Why do people not like change? People are almost encouraged to be “afraid” of new things and change. Especially in America, being a fairly young nation, we have a lot of change to go through, much of that change having already been accomplished by many of our elder neighbors/allies.
How do we convince people to not be afraid and to embrace change (while also realizing that death is inevitable in the end)?
By the way, damn, did we already miss the Rapture? Barreling toward the Apocalypse, I would hate to miss the wondrous sight of the Rapture! :>

By: freida

freida — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:25:41 +0000

good stuff