It's not the end of the world - Relatively Interesting

It’s not the end of the world

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It’s December 21st, 2012.

The Mayan Calendar has “ended”.

But if you’re reading this post, then you survived the apocalypse – congratulations!  Today is nothing special – just another addition to the long list of already failed doomsday predictions.

Is there any harm in a failed doomsday prediction?  Well, consider the money wasted on doomsday paraphernalia  like books, TV show, DVDs, and movies.  A quick search on Amazon for the terms “Mayan 2012” yields 965 results.   It’s just another example of opportunistic sales people profiting on the fears and insecurities of others.

So, a few people wasted a bit of money.  So what?

Consider the darker side of doomsday and apocalyptic prophecies – cults.  A somewhat recent example is the Heaven’s Gate cult, who believed that the world would be “recycled” and that the only way to survive was to leave planet Earth immediately.  Tragically, 1997, 39 cultists left the Earth by way of mass suicide.

Doomsday predictions are almost as old as civilization itself.  Once the dust settles from the non-Mayan Apocalypse, another prediction with surely rise from ashes… and someone will be there to profit from it.

Failed Doomsday and Apocalyptic Predictions

Image Credit (header):  http://halvaradoart.blogspot.ca/2009/11/nuclear-destruction-sketches.html