The perverse human desire for disaster

The internet is filled to bursting with disaster scenarios, both sober and wild-eyed. Example number one: ATS. I admit to being a "pessimism junkie" as much as the next loon...I spend much time immersed in reading involving themes from economic meltdown to apocalypse to epidemiological nightmares, descent of society into anarchy, and depopulation theories, to name a few. And fess up: most of you do too.

I think that if asked, soberly and rationally, 99% of the people here and elsewhere would say that they DON'T want these things to happen, and that they desire to prevent them. I also think this wouls be basically sincere: despite all the horrors we perpetrate on each other, very few have a true desire to see more suffering. I know I don't want to see any more, and I have sympathy with those suffering across this sad and beautiful world in so many ways.

And yet...and yet...something perverse in the human spirit capers and delights in the prospect of chaos and mayhem. I do not believe these two perspectives are contradictory...they can (and, I believe, do) co-exist within the same persons. Some call the drive for death thanatos and believe it is inherent in the human psyche. This may or may not be the case.

Analyzing the situation more closely, I think people are responding to two things here. First of all, there is a sense of impending doom many "aware" people have felt for years...sometimes decades. Every day the news confirms these dark ideas more and more. I think a lot of people would like to "just get it all over with" -- whatever "it" happens to mean -- so we can start from the bottom up and create a sane society again. This may not be the best way to do things (the French Revolution was pretty ugly, to pick one well-known example), but the drive itself does make a certain amount of psychological sense.

Secondly, I think an increasing number of people are totally bewildered by the world we have made for ourselves, with its unhealthy halogen lighting, endless stream of paperwork and stresss, and unhealthy yet pleasurable habits. I think there is a strong desire to return to the "basics" that defined humanity for so long... survival, hunt or be hunted...a basic simplicity that cuts through and clarifies. Again, although this desire may make sense psychologically, it is not necesssarily the best solution..."its all fun and games until somebody needs a dentist," as I've said before. Sprain your ankle (or worse) on the first day "TSHTF," and see how much "fun" a return to the basics will be. In a scenario where billions experience crisis, simple odds place any given individual (including you and me) in the grave rather than triumphant and safe hunkered in a bunker.

Any other ideas?

I agree with most of what you said and I am for one not a typically doomsday scenario minded as I think it's all a bunch of hooplah.

The idea that the world will end has been placed in our minds for thousands of years by those who chose to control society for their own purposes. Namely those in the faith, whatever specific one that might be. How many times can you recall in our lifetime did prophets say that the worlds' end is near? More than I can count. However none of it has come to pass, and while the public becomes more and more fed up with the nonsense that our respective governments are throwing at us, we all must realize that all of our battling and quabbling over land and resources will eventually kill us all anyway.

Self fulfilling prophechy I think is going to be the ultimate downfall, not some gladiator nuclear war, major weather disasters or something of the like, but our general distaste and tolerance of our fellow man. Greed and intolerance will lead us to hate ourselves more than we hate others and will tear our cultures apart from within.

I for one try to be optimistic, but despite my yearning for a spiritual awakening, a global peace and a cure for all disease, I don't see it happening until we learn to give back to the land and only take what is neccessary to live. We can co-exist, we just need to stop being such selfish ***holes.

I think that for some, thinking about disasters is more interesting than the boring, uneventful life they lead. I'm pretty sure that people living in dangerous places don't find the thought of disaster very exciting. I'd guess that it's only in places where the people are relatively safe - or at least, feel relatively safe - that they find the notion of calamity stimulating.

I think another part of this may be our efforts to feel as though we have some control over our lives. Many of us have prepared emergency plans to see them through whatever disaster they think is going to happen. Some have laid in food, water, weapons, ammunition, tools, etc, in anticipation of the breakdown of civilization.

While the usefulness of these preparations is debatable, it does give a person a feeling that even if things turn to [that which must not be said], they'll be able to handle it. Even if this feeling is illusory, it offers comfort. It may be as effective as a lucky rabbit's foot, but it gives us a sense of having some control.

Of course we can't prepare for every possible disaster, so we pick one we think is likely (or one we think we can do something about), and prepare for it. That may be why so many people argue so heatedly in favor of their preferred Armageddon. That's the one they're ready for.

its abit hard to collectively break away from all the nonsense an unlawful toil, greed, and peer induced pessism, while the few still control the many

It's not perverse. It's the desire of people - realizing they are trapped in some machine - totally unnatural for them. Maybe not conscious realization. From here - this "disaster fascination". This "wish" to see the machine fall apart. Freedom. We are not some creatures that would accept any "level of existence". We are not "vegetables".

After Hiroshima - there were many orphan children. For a few years they lived on the streets. Forming what looked like incipient tribes. As free beings, and the organizations they were in - they formed those to be happy, not unhappy.
Then they were taken into shelters - food, clothes , and school. They kept running away. After they tasted freedom - even in that ruined environment, they could not be made to fit into the machine. To die. To allow others tell them when to eat, sleep, wake up, "work" !

paimei01.blogspot.com...

But when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and have lived a while among them, tho’ ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness toprevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the firstgood Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.

Have you heard of the term "doomer" and "doomer porn" ?




[edit on 19-11-2009 by pai mei]