End of the World Syndrome

I think this truly is a Social Issue, so I figured this was the best place to post it. I am wondering if anyone has any input on why so many people find reasons why the world is going to end or are obsessed with it? I doubt that anyone actually wants the world to end, but sometimes you have to step back and wonder.

So my questions are these

1. Is it society in general that is causing this Doomsday Phobias, or the media? Is it truly just a phobia or is it a societal impact?

2. Is this just a case of strange occurrences that make people wonder if its a sign of the end, or is it a social awareness to a impending doom?

3. Is it a fear of the unknown ie I dont know whats going to happen down the road so let me create a fantasy in my head that is easier to swallow then facing the reality of life?

I don't believe the world is coming to an end, I believe that we are going through a planetary change, but I don't think it's is the end of the world. Far from it actually I think it will end up for the better. Day in and day out I see more and more end of the world scenarios pop up on ATS. Now I am not a veteran by any means I have only been on this site for about 6 months or so. So this may be a normal occurrence on ATS, but I think it's more then that as you can most easily find a item on Yahoo, Google, or Youtube pertaining to the end of the world. What saddens and sickens me is how it affects our society in general. There are literally Yahoo Questions and other posts out there of young kids age 12-16 that are so distraught by all this they actually are or have considered suicide. Is this really the way that we want to raise the children of today by making them fear tomorrow?

The whole thing reminds me of the stories my dad used to tell me about the Cold War days which I lived through part of, but this was when things were really bad like the Cuban Missile Crisis. He told me of the fear that he grew up with that Russians were gonna attack America and that the nukes were gonna come in. There was a time in Florida back then that they actually announced missiles had been launched by the Russians. People panicked locked themselves in bomb shelters etc. I see a trend of this recurring now with the 2012, may 2011, march 2011. I mean we are literally showing our kids that the world could end at any time. Now I am not saying we should lie to them and tell them that everything will be peachy keen, but honestly do we want to fill there heads with could be, might be, and maybe's?

Originally posted by Phantom28804
could end at any time. Now I am not saying we should lie to them and tell them that everything will be peachy keen, but honestly do we want to fill there heads with could be, might be, and maybe's?

It very well could be REALITIES. I to hate the fear mongering and scare tatics.Wish that children did not have to grow up in this world that has been created,but you must admit we face more over population,polution,crime,and natural disasters then we have as a race sense the mini ice age. Alot of us dont think this will be the end of the earth but a new begining. Unforetunaetly there will be hardship getting there.

reply to post by David134


Well its nice to see that only one person on the site is interested in this post. I suppose this goes a long way to show me how much it either bores them or annoys them. Maybe a bit both lol. Maybe it's to hard to face the reality of it, or then again maybe they just don't care.

I remember my Dad gossiping over the back fence about the Cuban missile crisis with the man next door (I was 9 years old, and was terrified when Dad jerked his thumb at me, and said.. "It's the likes of 'er I feel sorry for, that she won't live to grow up"...)
Thankfully he was wrong - he thought it might lead to WW3... and throughout the 80s, we all sort of wondered. But here we all are (except my Dad died young!) and the end of the world still has yet to happen.
Maybe our great-grand-children will be having the same discussion?
Vicky

I have a way of dealing with my sense of dread at the overwhelming stupidity displayed by the powers that be:

Live life for the day, as if it were your last day, but be assured that it probably isn't.

I do not understand peoples fascination with this.

I get so tired of hearing it, especially on this site.

This whole site is nothing more than a breeding ground for doom & gloom.

Everything is a sign that the world is going to end. Some people need to get rid of their tv and computer and just live their life.

I read some of these threads and I'm astonished by how gullible some people are. For example, I could say I have built a time machine and have been to certain places and meet with certain people. It is now for sale for $50 bucks, and I would almost bet my life on it that some person on here would want to buy it.

I only come to this site for pure entertainment purposes. My father is 74 years old and he loves reading tabloids and other crazy forms of entertainment. This is my form of crazy entertainment, and I get one awesome entertainment on this site.

This web site is home to some of the most paranoid people I have ever encountered. Its great!!

I think for some people it's a case of being bored or disappointed with their lives. They don't feel like they're particularly good at anything that society deems valuable, and the real world's just not as exciting as the worlds they encounter in movies, books, video games etc etc so they hope for something outrageous to happen and shake up their existence a little bit. I also bet these same people feel if a major catastrophe were to happen they'd be one of the survivors, thus finally giving them some sort of value they've failed to find in society so far.

reply to post by Phantom28804


In reality it is, that humans know something is bigger than us. Even atheists will also follow these things and shows they know there is more than us, and there most definitely is.

I think the world works in cycles personally like all things.

reply to post by Phantom28804


I don't think this effect is a Phobia, nor Fear Mongering either. What I think it is, is this: The Earth follows cycles just like everything on Earth, or in the Heavens. There is much evidence that there have been world destruction's, what could be called a singularity before, not just once, but several times over. There is also evidence that man/womankind of the Ancient Past were of a Higher Nature of Fife and Civilization that we have yet to achieve...It is a Remembrance of things past and future. A collective remembrance that is a part of the universal thought matrix that we are all tapped into.

No matter how you look at it, even if Aliens were to come and save the world from shifting it's magnetic and physical poles, clean up all the pollution and cleanse the air and water, and give the people of earth everything they need, even with all of that, it would still certainly be a major change. I think anyone will admit that we all need a change. A big change.

Originally posted by namine
I think for some people it's a case of being bored or disappointed with their lives. They don't feel like they're particularly good at anything that society deems valuable, and the real world's just not as exciting as the worlds they encounter in movies, books, video games etc etc so they hope for something outrageous to happen and shake up their existence a little bit. I also bet these same people feel if a major catastrophe were to happen they'd be one of the survivors, thus finally giving them some sort of value they've failed to find in society so far.

I can agree with that.

Originally posted by Phantom28804

I don't believe the world is coming to an end, I believe that we are going through a planetary change, but I don't think it's is the end of the world.

Same difference.

No matter what cycles the planet may or not move through, the promises of certain events in myth, legend etc.. propose a certain set of societal changes that I believe many starve for on a deep subconscious level.

Ultimately we live in quite a shallow, materialistic global society. Cultural paradigms of the old world are being torn down and replaced rapidly by mass high speed communication which illuminates money, fame and power as the pinnacle of life on earth.

There is more than likely a mass grieving for the culturally driven values inherent in our formerly family and local geographic driven community. We are all pushed harder and harder to share the same drives and model of success as the prevailing social current even though that is more then likely not the majority shared opinion...it's just that the minority in control purvey such sentiments via their mass vehicles of communication which we all subscribe to, since we find ourselves with more misdirected free time then our species has ever held before.

What is needed in my opinion is a world focus on personal philosophic evolution, a premise that each of us can raise our consciousness and in turn our perspectives to a new level freeing us literally from the bounds of materialism.

We seek the destruction of this society subconsciously as a remedy to our our gnawing inner disharmony with larger exoteric social materialism

I’ve come to the conclusion that the only reason we are here today is because our ancestors thought they might die at any moment. It kept them alert, questioning and cautious. Possibly even paranoid, but the important part is that they lived long enough to reproduce and take care of their offspring, and in turn, taught their offspring to be alert, questioning and cautious.

Is it better to run and hide when you hear a noise in the forest and live or figure it’s nothing and risk dying? I’d run and hide. Even though you are using energy you most likely live to see another day.

It is part of who we are.

Caveman Logic: The Persistence of Primitive Thinking in a Modern World by Hank Davis is a very good read.

edit to add: I also think that we as humans inflate our ego and when we talk about the “end times” we are really talking about our own death. It seems so foreign to us, to be dead. We believe that we, as individuals, are som important that us dying is “the end of the world”. And really, it is, but for us individually.

1. Is it society in general that is causing this Doomsday Phobias, or the media? Is it truly just a phobia or is it a societal impact?

I cannot speak for anyone but myself but to me, realizing how dependent our civilization is on transportation is a big wake up call. Anything that disrupts transportation nation wide will be a disaster. I do not believe in any particular "Doomsday" event, just the possibility that some kind of "event" could happen in my lifetime and choose to be a bit prepared and wish to educate others or at least make them think about buying some long term storage food instead of a TV!

2. Is this just a case of strange occurrences that make people wonder if its a sign of the end, or is it a social awareness to a impending doom?

How about understanding how fragile our current way of life actually is and preparing for an interruption that can happen sooner or later... let's all hope later or never. But in any case, I like to eat, my family likes to eat and it is my job to keep them safe.

3. Is it a fear of the unknown ie I dont know whats going to happen down the road so let me create a fantasy in my head that is easier to swallow then facing the reality of life?

As before, I hold no wants or fantasies for any event to ever, ever, ever happen. I love my life, I love my job, and I want my current way of life to continue. Unfortunately I am not so naive to believe that "It cannot happen" so you have to prepare at least for a season of self sufficiency or your a complete idiot. See links for a bit more information on the topic.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Phantom28804

1. Is it society in general that is causing this Doomsday Phobias, or the media? Is it truly just a phobia or is it a societal impact?

Yes. It is called procrastination. We all know the world needs change but rather than do it, we make up excuses. It is a bit like the episode where spongebob wont write his paper. For those of you with kids.

2. Is this just a case of strange occurrences that make people wonder if its a sign of the end, or is it a social awareness to a impending doom?

Rather than put forth the effort to fix our issues, people collectively create some external threat and that removes the responsibility and accountability from themselves a citizen of the world.

3. Is it a fear of the unknown ie I dont know whats going to happen down the road so let me create a fantasy in my head that is easier to swallow then facing the reality of life?

Right now it is a case where people are conditioned or programmed. Humanity is mentally abused right now. Ask a question and watch the backlash people give you. Challenge the norm and see you fast you branded as a nut or negative.


We need to understand the rules to the game in order to substitute a new player to call an audible.

Peace

There is also much social support for “end of times” scenarios, especially in the media.

Movies -
The Day After Tomorrow
2012
Armageddon
Night of the Living Dead
Independence Day

TV shows -
Survivor

Books -
The Bible
An Inconvenient Truth

These examples are just off the top of my head. This is not a “new” phenomena, just take a look at one of my examples, the Bible.

Who is demanding these movies, books, and TV shows? We, the public. If they didn’t sell than the producers, writers etc would not waste their time.

There is not much social support for recognizing it for what it is though, is there?

It isn’t as dramatic, sensationalized or entertaining, is it?

We won’t give up our end of times scenarios so quickly, will we?

Originally posted by namine
I think for some people it's a case of being bored or disappointed with their lives. They don't feel like they're particularly good at anything that society deems valuable, and the real world's just not as exciting as the worlds they encounter in movies, books, video games etc etc so they hope for something outrageous to happen and shake up their existence a little bit. I also bet these same people feel if a major catastrophe were to happen they'd be one of the survivors, thus finally giving them some sort of value they've failed to find in society so far.

Yes, I'm one of the "board or disappointed with there lives" people. I'm going back to school to do something worthwhile but I feel it will all come to nothing as the world changes or ends as explained on various threads on ATS.

I won't be a survivor to any SHTF catastrophe as I can barely get by with the current blizzard we are having and need for medical care that will not be here in a SHTF world. My wife and I have decided to take our own lives when this even takes place as death will come to us in time anyhow.

Originally posted by worlds_away
There is also much social support for “end of times” scenarios, especially in the media.

Movies -
The Day After Tomorrow
2012
Armageddon
Night of the Living Dead
Independence Day

The Day After (1983 ABC Miniseries of nuclear war)
Threads (1984 British movie about nuclear war)
On The Beach
The Quiet Earth
The Entire Left Behind Series
The Matrix Series
Countdown to Looking Glass (early 80's cold war nuclear thriller)
The Sum of All Fears
The Book of Eli
The Road
A Boy and His Dog
Doomsday
Cherry 2000
The Mad Max Series
Waterworld
The Postman
The Omen Series
The Day the Earth Stood Still
By Dawn's Early Light
Dr. Strangelove,
The Damned
Fail Safe
Testament
When the Wind Blows
Unthinkable
Twilight's Last Gleaming
This Is Not a Test
The Broken Arrow
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Children of Men
I Am Legend
The Resident Evil Series
The Handmaid's Tale (1991 film based on Margaret Atwood novel)

TV shows -
Survivor

Jericho
Jeremiah
The Survivors (1970's BBC Series and 2009 remake)
The Stand (made for TV movie based on Steven King novel)
The Colony
The Walking Dead
V (from the 1983 series to the current remake)

Books -
The Bible
An Inconvenient Truth

Dies The Fire by S.M. Stirling (over 10 books in the series now)
Earth Abides by George Stewart
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
The White Plague by Frank Herbert (same guy who wrote Dune)
Empty World by Samuel Youd
The Stand by Steven King
Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
World Made by Hand by James Howard Kuntsler
A Canticle for Lebowitz by Walter Miller Jr.
Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
Deus Irae by Phillip K Dick
Freeway Warrior series by Joe Dever
The Last Man by Mary Shelly
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
On The Beach by Neville Shute
The Postman by David Brin
The Shape of Things to Come by HG Wells

These examples are just off the top of my head. This is not a “new” phenomena, just take a look at one of my examples, the Bible.

Who is demanding these movies, books, and TV shows? We, the public. If they didn’t sell than the producers, writers etc would not waste their time.

The list goes on and on. For more info, check out en.wikipedia.org...

The stuff that I put here is stuff I've already read or watched and would recommend to others.

I would also go on to say that this "End of The World Syndrome" (maybe we could call it pathological eschatologia?) is going to become worse over the next 22 months leading up to 12-21-12. I have already observed both at this website and several others, including one which went offline yesterday due to a server hack, an easily observable increase in doomsday date threads and I have also seen a rapture date be given widespread credence for the first time in America. So far, we have three specific doomsday dates for 2011. March 15th, May 11th (rapture), and Oct 28th (tribulation, related to May 11th date). How do you expect January and February of 2012 are going to be on this site (if it's still up)?

There is also a noticeable difference in recent doomsday prediction/conspiracy trends, and those in the final 24 months leading up to Y2K. They are much more frequent, widely contradictory of each other, and many have a dedicated fanatical hard core which are more actively planning and propagandizing for the apocalypse, FEMA Camps, UN Invasion, Alien Invasion, Martial Law, Chinese Nukes, Superstorms, Pole Shifts, etc and are including a wider array of improvised and traditional weaponry in their planning processes.

The spread of the internet and increase in bandwidth availability which has enabled a wider spectrum of the lower socio-economic scale of the human terrain a broader access to the information superhighway as is evidenced by the increase in youtube videos theorizing about various TEOTWAWKI scenarios being posted from various points of view by people in lower and lower-middle class America (which is by far the most populous, most heavily addicted, most affected by consumerism and materialistic greed, least well-educated, most cognitively illiterate portion of the US).

The relatively unrestricted nature of internet access in the US has also enabled people with diagnosed severe mental disorders to get online and express their insanity on youtube and webforums and facebook and anywhere online really.... These are folks who are living on disability (crazy check) and use a portion of that check to buy themselves a laptop (not all crazy people are too crazy to go to Best Buy and get a computer and go to a cafe and get online to spout their craziness in webforums such as this one). Crazy people meet other crazy people and they spread their various paranoias amongst each other and sometimes become friends offline (with mixed results).

Many of these individuals are very adept at concealing just how crazy they really are and attract a number of undiagnosed followers and supporters who actually believe what the crazy person is saying, and begin acting in accordance with the suggestion or direction of the crazy person. I might even suggest that this is evidence that some forms of mental disorder are contagious, and that the contagion is spread to individuals who have the least psychological resistance (gullible/vulnerable/easily manipulated people) through the spread of ideas through mass media. Much like a virus. In fact, one of the recent web-slang terms is "viral video" or "The info went viral." Many of the worst types of craziness that could lead to the most shameful acts of violence if allowed to simmer and boil over that I've seen online is comprised of a moderate number of verifiable facts which are then theoretically linked together using wild assumptions and strawman arguments...welcome to the world of conspiracy theories, right?

I'm glad this thread was started because I was considering posting a thread about the very same thing yesterday and wasn't able to get around to it. I was wanting to caution people about becoming too attached to the various doomsday dates which are going to increase in number over the next 22 months. Those that are in the "bored with life" category are also generally suffering from a high level of frustration and sense of powerlessness over what they view to be horrendous injustices in (mostly American) society and may be prone to act out with suicidal violence as the "Grand Date of Final Doom" 12-21-2012 draws nigh.

I am almost positive that the US will witness it's first wave of suicide bombings this year, although I haven't yet figured out who the most likely perpetrator will be, but the concept of the validity of bombings and suicide bombings has spread to some American subcultures outside Islam. Particularly some minority subsects of evangelical and pentecostal Christianity. I would go so far as to say that we may even expect to see a rise in terror attacks from "Christian Patriots" in the coming months. And much of this will be due to the spread of information technology cheaply through the use of slave labor, forced marketing, cheap credit, and a consumer culture driven by materialism, selfishness and greed. Is it any wonder that things are the way they are?