It seems to be in human nature to believe in impending doomsday. Throughout the ages, predictions of impending doomsday have come, almost at regular intervals. The fact that none of those many predictions have been fulfilled, seems not to deter future prophets of doom. The reason being that many prophets of doom have a personal interest in those prophecies.
The idea of impending doomsday is very old. Since none of these predictions had happened, it is difficult to find references to most of them. Some are known because of their consequences, like when predictions of doomsday created a religion. This is the case, for example, of India. It is logical to consider that the situation in India had been one of oppression of one cast to those below, with only a few at the top being exempted from oppression. This situation produced depression and the ideas of doomsday flourished. It is well known that Indian religions reflect that idea of doomsday. They are pessimist. They support the idea that life is not worth living, that it is better to abandon this life for some unspecified better life sometime later.
The same situation arises in the case of the Jewish nation. They were defeated and subjugated many times. In this case, the doomsday takes the double characteristic of waiting for a Messiah and that the end is near, most of the time, guided by that Messiah. There is another phenomena evident in biblical times, that is important. Many individuals take those prophecies of doom to their advantage. They studied the prophecies and adjusted their actions in a way that looks as if the prophecies referred to then. The Gospels are full of these situations. Typical is the individual who arranged to be received in Jerusalem as a Messiah. He arranged to have a donkey ready and sent his followers to make propaganda so people expected the Messiah, which came in a donkey at the appointed time.
Another good example of the doomsday craze is the one of the year 1000. It is to be noted that this one also coincided with a period of oppression. The Dark Ages were in full swing. The power of the church was absolute. People lived in ignorance and fear. Any slip of tongue could lead to torture and death. Not even kings were exempted. The idea that the year 1000 indicated the end of the world swept the land like wild fire. Nobody realized that the number 1000 has little meaning. It only represents a convention, counting years since an imaginary date, the birth of Jesus. Since Jesus was not a single person, the date of his birth cannot be asserted. The different persons called Jesus in the Gospels were born during the period from 6 BC to 10 AC, with the C meaning an convenient zero. Besides, the actual count was later found to be in error and modified.
A similar doomsday crisis occurred for the year 2000, with people organizing all kind of celebrations and parties. They wanted to reach the end of the world in a good mood, feasting to the end. In these two cases, as in all the others, when the prophesied date passed, they continued their lives, forgetting the prophesy.
There has been a large increase in doomsday prophesies in current times, mostly supported by bureaucrats and failed politicians with agendas of their own, and believed by people that has been conditioned to believe everything they are told. This increase in doomsday prophesies has its roots, like in the past, in the current conditions, where people find themselves victims of circumstances they cannot control and that prevent them from developing the kind of life they want. A continuos flow of events, since World War II, produced this situation where it seems to be no way out, and produced the sense of doom.
During this period, three types of doomsday prophets have developed. One is the failed politician who tries to get media exposure; two, are the pseudo-scientists trying to get grants by supporting doom ideas; and three, the bureaucrats, who use the doomsday ideas to impose more restrictions and regulation on the public.
The sequence of wars since World War II is one of the causes. This got to a climax during the second half of last century with the government condemning young people to death in Vietnam, without the benefit of a trial to know why they were sent to death. The mass suicide in the Guyana is only one example. The craze about smoking is another, when the propaganda told that not only smokers will die of cancer, but men, women, and children will die in mass from second hand smoking. This reduced smokers into a second class citizens, who do not have any right. When that did not happen, other ideas were put forward as causes of the mass extinction of the human race. Everybody was too fat. Everybody should stop eating to loose weight. Everybody will suffer hearth attacks if they eat. People should throw the wheat and eat the straw. People should throw the banana and eat the peal. As a consequence, the traditional ham and eggs breakfast was replaced by a bowl of cereal made out of straw. When that passed, they came with the hole on the ozone layer, prophesying that everybody will die of skin cancer in a few years. Although the bureaucrats have not been successful in preventing people going to the beaches, most public pools are now enclosed. They turned later to the asteroids. They prophesied that an asteroid will wipe out the human race. They took as an example the asteroid that supposedly killed the dinosaurs, and dismissed the studies that proved that to be false. Every asteroid to pass close to earth causes hysteria. Nobody considers that asteroids have been passing close to earth since the formation of the solar system. Billions of dollars are spent looking for any asteroid that could kill the human race. Later they came out with the global warming. The earth will cook on its juices in a few years unless no more greenhouse gasses are emitted. There are innumerable restrictions applied to people on this base. It is said that the global temperature has increased at the rate of 0.1 degree per century. The price of a car has increased five times in a few years. The price of heating a home as doubled the last year. There is more to come.
The funny thing about all these prophecies is that their proponents are normally persons who have no reason to know what their are talking about. The global warming is supported by people with little background. Failing as a politician seems to confer the necessary authority to make doomsday prophecies. Independent scientists, observing that the indicators used to predict doom have occurred many times in the past with no bad effect, and that they are being misused, cannot compensate for the active propaganda of politicians, the media, and pseudo-scientists interested in getting grants.
A superficial analysis of the situation today indicates the reason for the proliferation and acceptance of the doomsday prophecies. A very good reason is the erosion of human rights and freedoms that has taken place in the world in the last few decades, and that continues today. People sees their income becoming less and less because the government asks for more and more. People sees their freedom becoming less and less as the government imposes more and more rules, imposes more and more controls, reduces what people can do. It seems that the only solution to this situation is to believe, or hope, that soon the world will end and with it the pains people suffers. Doomsday prophecies seems to be the direct consequence of oppression and despair.
A superficial analysis of the situation today indicates the reason for the proliferation and acceptance of the doomsday prophecies. A very good reason is the erosion of human rights and freedoms that has taken place in the world in the last few decades, and that continues today. People sees their income becoming less and less because the government asks for more and more. People sees their freedom becoming less and less as the government imposes more and more rules, imposes more and more controls, reduces what people can do. It seems that the only solution to this situation is to believe, or hope, that soon the world will end and with it the pains people suffers. Doomsday prophecies seems to be the direct consequence of oppression and despair.