Why we expect the End of the World

my experience is more that a vast number of people think it's all them;
they were the only one bright enough to see the end coming,
they were the only one strong enough to beat back the zombies,
they were the only one the shining godhead saw fit to speak through the static to...
it's everywhere. Everyone knows they'd do a better job at being in control, if only the damn system they're enslaved to would break down and they could get their hands free to prove it! And don't even get me started on the action-movie-hero types, all full of testosterone fueled "come the zombie revolution" junk. that's human nature. Independent bloody-minded monkeys itching for an excuse to throw the whole thing away. I'd sympathise, if it didn't trend so strongly to the violent.

a reply to: Astyanax


You missed the entire point which doesn't at all surprise me and you make some assumptions as well. I don't watch TV and haven't in years, it's what makes it so easy to see it now.

Marketing IS subliminal, any good marketing strategy is anyway. The point of commercials isn't to simply say "Hey we got a product, do you need it?" It's more like "Trust us, this is best for you, and we know what's best"

Color choices play a role. Placement of words and specific word choices. Correlating a drug to nature, etc.

Their is subliminal messaging when you read or browse a site including your tightly boxed interpretation of subliminal messaging. It's easy to hide the words through scrolling text.

I wrote this this morning, on another thread-

I'm not really into zombies - I can't stand zombie movies in general and it took me a long time to even check out that series because of my scepticism. But I guess it is the examination of human nature, and how people cope with crisis and real struggle, how it effects relationships and personality.

Sometimes I wonder if we don't become more fascinated with end-of-society catastrophy scenarios (doom porn and such) exactly because our world has gotten too comfortable, too automatic, too....boring!

Perhaps we retain the need to face challenge to survival, and at some point miss the way it brings us back to our social animal within, and the necessity to truly and sincerely need each other. When there really is dire threat to our lives, all fears of reaching out to others become knocked down.

As long as life stays easy, we can cringe behind our computer screens, order our groceries on-line, tell our selves we're being social because we tweeted a picture, and brave because we dared to face down a troll. While our machines do our laundry and dishes, and the food is delivered by a faceless teen at the door for two seconds.
It's all bs, and I suspect our bodies are dying to get out and have real interaction with the real world!
If the world suddenly blew up around us, our survival instincts would be unleashed. We'd find each other again for real. That might just be the point.

a reply to: BlueAjah

It's not the attraction to doom, it's the voyeristic fear that we are the ones who will catalyst and cause our doom. It's actually a separation and a personification of our darkest archetypes.

These motifs and arechtypes are meant to guide us on a collective scale, and to face our "inner demons" in order to progress to our best potentials.

However, as always we will have to face our darker sides, and find ways to incorporate them and satisfy the needs that they represent. It's a mode of progress, however religions and other ideologies have made death cults surrounding this, and they are treasonous to humanity. Truly

a reply to: BlueAjah

The doom porn was originated by religion as a way to keep the masses dependent on the church for their salvation.

The earth will end when either we humans find a way to kill ourselves or the sun no longer support life in earth.

I used to like the walking death, but by now I have gotten tired of it.

I think we yearn for an end to come because we are all in such misery here while we live.

Go ahead and try to get anyone to admit how much of a traumatic experience this world we live in actually is and they will refer to some imaginary and all powerful entity who is going to save their soul after they die.

This is paradise, this is all there is, this is all we have to work with.

Why not make it better while we live for everyone instead of making things better out of selfishness and narcissism as so many do?.

winning, with one star

a reply to: Rosinitiate

I used to work in the advertising business. We used lots of sneaky little tricks, but never anything remotely 'subliminal'. Why not? Partly because there are laws against it, but mostly because it doesn't work.

Think about it. The media is crammed with advertisers, all jostling and yelling and flashing and pleading for your attention. You think anything subliminal has a chance of being noticed over all that hullabaloo?

YOUR world ends when YOU die. Heart attack or asteroid, your going to die someday, so don't let them scare you with all the doom and gloom, enjoy your life well you have it.

just as a joke is one form of addressing a touchy or sensitive subject ( sex, bigotry, race, religion etc.)

the doom-porn is a way for us to approach other touchy subjects...the zombie genre is more about the individual super-man within each of us according to Nietzsche, than about doom-porn)

read the 200 word essay of comparison between the superman of Nietzsche-v-Hegel here: www.exampleessays.com...


doom-porn, in my case...I find a need to become versed or at the least familiar with or knowledgeable about every type of doomsday scenario out there in the collective mind... not as an expert mind you, but rather like an aficionado of ways that civilization will meet Its' demise...or transformation to a more advanced state as the old, used up body needs to die & decompose so as to provide the nutrients required to grow a new generation of life

Who wants to see the end of the world really?
Not me unless I get to lucid dream upon my death where things are all peachy and exciting.

a reply to: BlueAjah

I think most of us secretly lust after calamity on some level for a variety of reasons.

As you say in your OP, how a person acts in extreme circumstances can tend to help define them, so I think that this desire to be more than we are that most people have plays a part. Our own little delusion of grandeur where we help save the world when the apocolypse comes. Is each person that important? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I think that's a balancing act that anyone who thinks hard enough ultimately undertakes: to understand your importance to the big picture without getting too wrapped up in your importance to the big picture. Anyhow, don't wait for the end of the world folks! Save it now. Make positive changes now, if you can.

I think another important factor to consider, which you also alluded to in your OP, is our fear of the dehumanization of modern society. Our modern society is what it is, it is not "the best type of civilization for mankind". All of these modern conveniences and efficiency and most of us still do not truly meet our needs. Even if we feed clothe and shelter ourselves, we still find ourselves lacking what would help us to be truly content and satisfied with life in general. Who, that thinks on this enough, wouldn't be somewhat horrified? I'm horrified as I write this. I'd imagine you know the feeling. Farther down page 1 you said:

But I think something drastic needs to happen to turn things around, or the human situation is going to go on in a negative direction.
Something needs to change to give people a much more positive view of our future.

I don't have the answer as to what we lack, but neither does modern society, in my opinion.

Also religion, as TechniXality said.

It's also interesting to note that this mindset has occurred throughout history. People have been crying doom as long as there's been something to cry about.

Now if I could just get rid of that nagging feeling that the sky is about to fall in...

I don't really worry about the end of the world.

Instead, I worry about any event (even local, or even just my family), that could change my quality of life and make me lose what I have. I know full well why. I never had so much, nor did I have so many dependent on me before.

So, I take steps as I can, to mitigate that risk.

That said, nothing lasts forever, and history teaches us this. Our economy is based on lies, only kept afloat because we really have no other choice. Our power grid is ancient and deemed not worthy of Congress' attention or money. And numerous whackos delight in planning attacks meant to terrorize the citizens. There is a LOT that can go wrong, and it only takes one such thing to tip the balance. So, a concern? Sure.

But, I've lived through quite a few "end of the world" predictions, and I assume I'll live through quite a few more.....

The above all said...the reality is that our economic system is doomed to fail. That's just simple math. It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN. I was hoping we'd have at least another decade before it all went to hell, but these days, it just seems sooner and sooner. I was actually surprised it didn't happen in 2008. Today, it's worse than ever, and the bailouts that helped keep it all afloat in 2008, simply aren't there anymore. It's going to pop...and when it does, it will be bad, it will be global, and it will not be easy to fix...may not even be possible to fix. That isn't doom and gloom, it's simple economics and history.

a reply to: BlueAjah

Saudi Arabia will have highs of 170 degrees at the end of the century. The sea level will rise at least 10 feet they just discovered, due to the collapse of the Eastern Antarctic ice sheet is now inevitable, this will make many of the largest cities in the world uninhabitable such as New York, most of the largest cities are coastal. California and swaths of the western US will be uninhabitable due to a mega-drought that will occur soon and is already beginning to occur. Europe will become uninhabitable. Although you can call it doom porn, the human impact on the ecosystem is having a major effect and it is recognized by science that the world is an a major extinction event, of six or so that have occured since life arose here.

This does not mean you should not get on and live your life though, just food for contemplation. Things usually work out.
You might use the knowledge to plan where you would like to settle down for the longer term.

Saudi Arabia will have highs of 170 degrees at the end of the century. The sea level will rise at least 10 feet they just discovered, due to the collapse of the Eastern Antarctic ice sheet is now inevitable, this will make many of the largest cities in the world uninhabitable such as New York, most of the largest cities are coastal

That all sounds quite far-fetched. Any links?

The drought is real enough in CA. However it is pretty easily solved with the same solution used for decades in other places. Desalinization. They simply don't want to pay for it. Too bad, they'll have no choice soon enough.