People have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years. Sooner or later one of them is going to be right.
Fear mongering. As former Jehovah?s Witnesses we know all about it. I?d like to say we are experts in the methods of how to scare the crap out of someone, since most of us were fed a constant message which scared the crap out of us. Armageddon, poverty, sin, AIDS, rampant crime, the elders, earthquakes, the Great Tribulation ? I don?t need to remind you of what Watchtowerworld is all about. ?We are living in the worst of times!? is a concept that lies at the very center of the Witness Weltanschauung. But at least the ?best of times? are to follow?after Jehovah obliterates 99.9 % of all humanity in what I like to call a ?Global 9-11.? How encouraging!
Of course, the Watchtower is guilty of a lot of fallacious reasoning when it comes to it?s appraisal of our ?end times.? Some things are worse, but some things are surely better. Life-expectancy is up dramatically, infant mortality is down, prejudice ? once something that was rampant in every culture ? is diminishing in the more enlightened ones. A lot of things are better than ever. Would you rather have lived in the middle-ages? I think not.
And yet, the Watchtower is right when it comes to some things, a fact that many former Witnesses find hard to swallow. Even if the day-to-day lives of people are better, in the Western world at least, we still are living in extraordinarily uncertain times ? I dare say the riskiest times in all of human history. It's not due to Satan being thrown to the earth or any other type of millenial gobbledy-gook. It's just time and human nature.
The Cold War, with it?s principle of Mutually Assured Destruction to deter the Superpowers from certain annihilation, was comfortable compared to the menacing threat of a terrorist cell detonating a suitcase nuke in downtown Manhattan. (Even if the world wouldn?t end, can you imagine what life would be like with a giant hole on the east coast?) The threat, once clustered in a manageable way (the USSR), is now spread out among psychotic terrorists who don?t care if they live or die. Uncertainty.
And then there?s the economy, stupid?or the stupid economy. My generation is paying into a social security plan that probably won?t be there when we need it. The gap between rich and poor is rising steadily. Technology, for all its benefits, is raising the cost of health-care to unimaginable levels. The average time spent at one job is down to less than five years. Faster, faster, faster! The rate of change in the global market is practically out of control. For all it?s benefits in lower product prices and electronic gadgetry to ?Wow!? us, no one seems to really like where our market is going. Uncertainty.
Does anyone really notice? Most don?t. People, especially the younger generation, are too busy with a) finding a job; b) working overtime at their job; c) who the Next Big Star will be on T.V.; or d) quick religion which offers chimerical ?answers.? If you are really in tune with the world and it?s problems, and not into some silly cult, you probably feel a sense of alienation and powerlessness. I do.
Sometimes I just sit back and think to myself, ?Fuck it. So what if the world is going to hell and the extinction of our race is just around the corner, enjoy what you have now and find humor in the madness going on around you.?
Pessimism? Realism.
B.