Is It All Happening? (It’s Not All Happening)
Sometimes I like to get doom-and-gloomy and endtimes-y. It’s fun! This is is pretty clearly a coping mechanism for not dealing with my own problems—I mean, really, it’s really hard to get excited or devastated about a massive amount of credit card debt when you think The World Is Ending. It’s also a great antidote to ho-hum feelings of inadequacy and a failure to embrace life, accomplish things. But I also recognize that everyone in the history of the world has felt like this at one time or another. If the END is the grand finale, of course we all think we’re going to be stars of the show. Every generation of dinosaurs was probably, like, “God, it’s OVER.” And only one of them ended up being right! All that wasted energy.
Anyway I spent some time last night on my favorite hobby, which is: Thinking about all the ways things could get real (ways things could get real: floods, collapse of world economy, nuclear war, massive famine, plague, really the only limit is your imagination!), and maybe I should, I don’t know, own a flashlight, or keep some bottles of water in my closet, something. Iodine pills? A sleeping bag? A map of the city that isn’t my phone?
And then I woke up and read this article in Der Spiegel. You dont really need to read it, just know that the article is filed under “Euro Crisis,” the kicker is “Currency’s Days Feared Numbered,” and the title is “Investors Prepare for Euro Collapse.” In my head: This is the beginning! This is IT. I called my dad. I woke him up. “Is the Euro going to collapse and stimulate the fall of the world economy and, in turn, the fall of man?” This was a serious question. “No,” he said.
Society lives to see another day. DRAT.
Logan, if only you’d lived in the time of The Prophet Hen of Leeds (1806), in which “a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase “Christ is coming” was written. As news of this miracle spread, many people became convinced that doomsday was at hand.”
Or in 1000 AD, when slaves in the Roman empire took to the streets to panic (some) and celebrate (others) “the inexorable fulfillment of our hopes.”
(I too share an apocalypse dream, just took out a bunch of books from the University of Michigan library about apocalypse predictions, thus the Leeds hen etc)
@j-i-a LEEDS HEN, amazing. also love that your apocalypse dreams lead to the library (sensible!), mine lead to … conspiracy theory websites.
1000 AD, when slaves in the Roman empire took to the streets
psst the roman empire hadn’t existed for like 500 years in 1000 AD just FYI
@jfruh I was talking about the Byzantine empire, which was internally referred to, at the time, as the Roman empire, and seen as a continuation of the realm. Should have clarified. Too many apocalypse books.
I finished World War Z a few days ago and immediately started reading the Stand (class starts back up next week! My recreational reading days are numbered! I happened across a “Top 10 Apocalyptic Novels” list!). I’m going to buy all of the canned goods.
“Every generation of dinosaurs was probably, like, ‘God, it’s OVER.’”
Best. Sentence. Ever.
Sometimes when I hear weird plane noises, I am like OH FUCK ALIENS!?
Funny… I’ve been thinking about doomsday preparations for the past few days. Even went so far as to subscribe to one of those Off-Grid living pages! Could last Saturday’s Nostradamus special on the H Channel have something to do with it?