Apokalyptics

This is the way the world ends

by Mark Sumner for Daily Kos

With 2012 looming – both on the election scene and on interlocking wheels of the Mayan calendar – the idea of impending doom permeates our culture. Not only does world-ending disaster make a regular appearance in fiction and at the box office, cable TV is chockablock with specials on our death from environmental degradation, from economic collapse, from exploding super-volcanoes and plunging asteroids.

That we should be in a worldwide fret over the end of days is nothing new. Predictions of the end of the world are featured among the earliest known writings. Within our lifetimes, there have been those who confidently predicted the tumbling of our "Ponzi scheme" markets, the rapturous return of the Lord, the cleaving of the Earth by cosmic forces, and the smoldering horrors of nuclear annihilation. Over a series of articles, we've looked at the threats posed by everything from disease to asteroids, and have concluded that while the danger is real, it's also remote. Yes, there are things out there that could do us in, but most of those large enough to have lasting impact are also extremely unlikely.

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/27/960465/-This-is-the-way-the-world-ends?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29