It's not the end of the world....

Well, well, well. Here we all are. So the Mayans had it wrong, and the world didn’t come to a crashing, spectacular halt.

I’m not really surprised, but I am a bit disturbed by how many people seemed to be looking forward to it. I mean, some people seemed to be looking forward to the world’s end with something like glee!

I’m not sure why this would be. Maybe they see the world through such cynical eyes they think everyone deserves to die? Or maybe they are just depressed and want to die, but can’t bring themselves to do themselves in?

Of course, I am sure there are some out there who believe that the “end of the world” just means that most people will die, but a chosen few will live, and they consider themselves part of that elite group. Some religions believe that; some survivalists do. Imagine if they are both right, and the world is suddenly plunged into a dark age of primitive living with nothing but religious nuts and rabid survivalists left to repopulate. What would future human beings evolve into? I’ll give you a minute to contemplate that…

Okay, now that I have caused you to shudder in horror, I would like to point out that our race probably already evolved from just such types.

Take the survivalists: they are really just practical (albeit often paranoid) folks who are prepared for just about any eventuality. Paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the world is a scary, unpredictable place. (Wait, it always is, isn’t it…?) Besides, as someone once said, “Just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.” And in a post-apocalyptic world, that is probably even more accurate. Or, for that matter, back when human beings were first coming into their own, fighting for a place in a wild world, paranoia and preparation was surely the difference between who survived and who didn’t. Just ask Noah. (Now there was the “original survivalist.” Can you imagine the way his neighbors made fun of him?)

As for religious nuts, we’ve also had them from the beginning, when people were worshiping the sun and the moon, desperate to find meaning in what must have seemed to be a chaotic existence, where storms could blow away their fragile shelters, the moon would grow and recede, the sun would blaze down and burn their skin one day and hide behind cloud cover for weeks at a time…

Having faith that the proper behavior would keep those frightening phenomena from destroying you would be a great comfort. I think the same holds true today; we might have a better understanding of weather and the phases of the moon, but there are still plenty of forces in the world that seem bent on our destruction… many of them fellow human beings. Nice to think someone is watching out for you, and that in the end they will take you to a better place… in the meantime, the true believers will treat their fellow humans better, so that isn’t a bad thing.

I think what I have just described here is a basic division of human beings: those that believe helping their fellow man will keep them safe, and those that believe they have a right to anything that allows them to survive.

I think I had a point here, but now I have just depressed myself. So I leave you to consider this on your own…

And hope that the Mayans didn’t mean midnight tonight….