A lot of people predicted that the start of the new Millennium, the year 2000 would be the date of the apocalypse. However, fortunately, they were very wide of the mark.
What is it that makes people to attempt to predict disasters? Is it because they are attempting to warn people or because they wish to scare people? Frighten people, I think and thereby gain advantage over the naive.
These apocalyptic predictions go back thousands of years and even appear in the Bible. Their only raison d’etre is to frighten people and so gain money, power and influence over them.
Even the millennium bug turned out not to be a problem with computers functioning perfectly well after midnight in spite of claims by ‘computer experts’ that there would be a worldwide crash of stupendous importance. The computer industry made a fortune out of frightening businesses and individuals with their deceit. That was the scam of the Nineties to end all swindles!
So why all the hype? Was it just the arrival of a new millennium, which gave rise to so many to make predictions on this date rather than stick to their usual common sense? Yes, I think. People saw the chance of a lifetime to rip others off and they jumped at it.
Needless to say there were hundreds of predictions made ranging from the arrival of aliens and the Second Coming of Christ to airplane crashes. None of which came true. Here are a few of those less than precise predictions:
May 5th was the day upon which all the planets lined up. The prediction was that the gravitational force of all these heavenly bodies in alignment would cause massive earthquakes, huge tides and volcanic eruptions.
A lot of people also prophesied that the shifting of the poles would occur during 2000 and that this would cause disastrous events such as high tides, widespread electrical failure and computer failures, which would mean economic disaster for the larger countries and insurance firms.
I do not know what you think, but perhaps instead of worrying about the end of the world (most doom-mongers have settled on the year 2012 for the destruction of the world) we should work together to make the best of the time we have left on this planet, as well as ensuring that we pass the planet on to the next generation in the same condition as we received it.
If we act in this way, we may hold off the apocalypse for a long while yet. We are far more likely to suffer apocalypse through nuclear war, global warming and events which are preventable and within our control, than cosmic events which we have little control over such as asteroids or the Sun’s turning into a red dwarf and eventually exploding.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with custom wall calendars If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars
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