“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” – H.L. Mencken
Last week, the Doomsday Clock was moved up 30 seconds! That’s right, we’re 30 seconds closer to the end of the world! Run for the hills or your nearest army surplus or online prepper outlet.
There are, and always has been, a cast of thousands telling us the end is near. Radio shows, internet sites, podcasts – and now these scientists with their hands on the Doomsday Clock , advancing it closer to midnight…tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.
“This year’s Clock deliberations felt more urgent than usual…as trusted sources of information came under attack, fake news was on the rise, and words were used by a President-elect of the United States in cavalier and often reckless ways to address the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change,” Rachel Bronson, the executive director and publisher of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in a statement.
Okay…thanks – I think. But then I thought…what do you mean “as trusted sources of information came under attack”? Oh…yeah, those trusted sources like the ones who pissed all over themselves with the BS “golden showers” nonsense? Or those same “trusted sources of information” who, along with the government, tried to sell us on those weapons of mass destruction? There are, of course, many other examples of the media and government lying to its citizens. This isn’t anything new.
Now maybe I’m not advanced enough in Doublethink, but I don’t believe ONLY nuclear detonation or abnormal climate change can bring about doomsday. Lots of folks experience their own personal doomsday and it’s rarely, if ever, documented by these same “trusted sources of information”, nor does it seem to be of much concern to these scientists with their emotional pleas for help because of the election of Trump.
Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria have experienced cities leveled, towns destroyed, families disintegrated, lives ended – and it’s fairly safe to say that the 26,171 bombs the US dropped on these countries in 2016 alone had something to do with these victims own personal doomsday experience. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists report, bringing needed awareness to the populace regarding nuclear weapons, climate change, biotechnology and emerging technologies, fails to comment on the obvious – the destruction that is going on each and every day.
When CNN reported back in 2014 of the countries the US bombed 
under the Obama administration (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria) there was barely a whimper from the same politicians, other media and people protesting the Trump administration’s travel ban for seven Middle Eastern countries deemed security risks by the previous administration. Countries torn apart by US bombs from the past administration and few cared, yet now, the media whips up a frenzy because a few hundred citizens from these same countries have been temporarily detained. Evidently it’s okay when innocents die but somehow inconceivable that refugees coming from these countries be thoroughly vetted before being allowed entry into the US. Of course, there wouldn’t be a refugee crisis without the United States interventions and nation-building actions over the last 20 years or so throughout the Middle East.
Yes, evil exits and yes it must be dealt with but how long is needed to deal with it given that advances of technology that allows militaries (not to mention governments) the capability to listen to you, watch you and track you 24/7/365. America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776. How long before we stop the endless and needless cycle of death and destruction? We are told we are either fighting the war on terror, or giving countries a chance at democracy – and we do so with bombs, tanks, artillery, missiles and every other conceivable weapon of destruction.
We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war. ~ Jimmy Carter
But don’t think this is only a bunch of Left leaning experts taking on the role of Nostradamus, forecasting the end of the world. This kind of stuff is also used by the Right to scare the bejesus out of you, prodding you to not only build an ark but build it in a mountain sanctuary where no life other than deer and antelope lounge.
I live in the city – always have. I wish I had country living experience. I wish I was more hardy – wish I was about 30 years younger, wish I had the physical strength of Hercules, or the comic book, superhero guys and gals’ ability to fly, throw cobwebs and perform aerobatic tricks normally reserved for clay animation objects. I don’t.
I’ve been reading and listening to all sorts of doomsday aficionados for the past 10 years or so, forecasting financial doom, planet extinction from asteroids, end of the world predictions from all types of religious guru’s and on and on and on. It’s always going to happen next year; or with this election or that event – if and when this or that happens then for sure that will happen. It never ends and “it” never happens – so far, at least.
And certainly, this “end of the world” scaremongering serves some quite nicely as there are a number of these predictors of doom who make a living at supplying whatever you might think you need; that which you don’t know you need, and a catalog of other things you can’t possibly need once the shit hits the fan.
I understand the need to be prepared. Water, extra food on site, protection…but I don’t have an armored redoubt to store it in or the means to build one. Nor do I have a bazillion bucks in the bank to follow the example of the super rich, the elites – you know, those who have contributed, some in small ways, others in extremely significant ways toward the mess we live in, buying up properties in New Zealand, to escape to. It’s always the same. Regular folks are left holding the bag of dung while the elites run away from the madness they helped create.
While it’s probably too much to hope for, it would be neat if these prognosticators of the apocalypse and sellers of doom – rather than listing the ways in which the world is in sorrier shape than it was yesterday 
and the ways they envision the world ending…how about talking, writing – pushing for ways the world can work together as much it pushes for wars with other nations? How about holding these “trusted sources of information” accountable for their lies and avenues of manipulation they employ to keep the pot stirred – country against country, race against race, religious against religious, women against men, young against old, conservative against liberal and every other form of division they dream up each day?
Indeed, nuclear weapons, climate change (even though the climate is always changing) biotechnologies and emerging technologies are things we all should be aware of and hold governments to either eliminate or regulate to ensure the ultimate safety and freedom of every individual on the planet but the real danger is what is happening with the global cartel of mad men who perpetuate wars in the name of advancing democracy, benefitting arms and war manufacturers, and tightening the noose of domination over anyone who doesn’t buy into their plans of total submission to their global system. While the main stream media in the US and most of Europe obsess with blaming Russia for everything from dirty diapers to wanting to annex every last one of their sovereign neighbors, there are real and present dangers.
We here in the US don’t hear much from these trusted sources of information about NATO, along with the US slithering closer to Russia. If we do, it’s done to advance the idea that Russia needs to be controlled back to oblivion. Just imagine if Russia had troops and tanks sitting on US borders. The Doomsday clock keepers would have busted it and sent everyone to the hills for cover. Rather than hyping up war with Russia as the answer, perhaps it would be the smarter thing to listen to Mr. Putin talk. His “rantings” have no semblance of the mad man that some in the US and majority of main stream outlets would like you to believe him to be. Isn’t it better to talk through differences and work with other countries rather than drool over war…a war where we’re ensuring doomsday for thousands of innocents? I have no crystal ball but try only to listen to all sides speak directly. No country or government is perfect. You can review and make your own determination by listening to Mr. Putin talk, with English translations here. And it would be naive to believe that Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump or any other world leader is the knight in shining armor who will bring nirvana to the world.
This is the way the World ends—not with a bang, but a whimper. – T.S. Eliot; The Hollow Men, 1925
Life is a pain in the ass for most of us. We don’t have money to throw at armored anything. We struggle to make ends meet and this is the middle class. The poor, they just struggle to survive. They don’t have the time to protest. They don’t have the energy to march on the capital or run into the streets, injuring others and destroying property all in the name protesting the latest hyped up atrocity of the day.
In between trips for one’s favorite latte, the populace is stirred up with new and nifty scary stories over things and only the things that “experts” and tunnel vision visionaries want the populace stirred up about. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, on-going bombing campaigns rip apart families and end lives. And meanwhile, here at home, the poor struggle to survive each and every day, the homeless remain, for the most part, homeless. There are no protests for them, no protests for the lives lost thousands of miles away, as those type of protests don’t get you featured on the nightly news or social media. And billions of more dollars are spent on wars that benefit the few and rip apart the rest…with hardly a breath of protest.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Photo credit: By futureatlas.com (originally posted to Flickr as The end isn’t near) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: By USAF (US Air Force) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo credit: ([Photos] Before & After in Aleppo and Why We Need an Antiwar Movement) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Dylan Charles and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
Dispatches from the Asylum 