The End of the World (for those in darkness) READ!

[Generic Other]

The End of the World"(or The Seven Days of UNcreation)©AdBusters 39 (Jan/Feb 2002)
Douglas Coupland
 1

It's noon, Thursday, Eastern Daylight Time, and every human being on Earth has just vanished in one huge and completely unselective rapture. Had there been any warning, people might have parked their cars on the roadside or landed their planes, but no, so immediately the world's roads become flaming wreckage-strewn ribbons, while crashed jets punctuate the landscape with fireballs.To witness the scene around, say, a freeway circling Dallas, Texas, one would have the impression of a landscape on which 10,000 black tethers have been lashed to the sky.And then things go quiet, at least for a few minutes -- the quietest few minutes the planet has known for centuries, but this doesn't last long, as everything has been left running. Dams continue to generate electric current, and gas pipes continue to deliver gas and fuel rods remain inserted in their cores. Gas stoves, heating systems, security lasers and Bunsen burners cause houses, businesses, prisons and hotel rooms the world over to burst into flames, followed by oil wells and forests and, most critically, nuclear power stations, beginning with less sophisticated and undermaintatined models in the former Soviet Union, as well as those on the Asian subcontinent. The smoke they produce is certainly thick, but the isotopes they release into the jet stream and air sheds is in levels inconceivable to even the most nuclear-paranoid.By midnight, most of the Northern Hemisphere fares slightly better in an On the Beach sort of way, but the mist of angry isotopes from the north begins arriving around the 24-hour mark.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/a/saw23/STS100/EotW.html

[NashVegas]

1. BOO!

:P

[Generic Other]

2. Laugh if you will...

I believe the end will come by accident.

[NashVegas]

5. If We're all Going to Disappear in Rapture

As you say, what's the point in getting uptight about it?

[Generic Other]

11. The rapture part is silly

and will come afterwards anyway...

Ask Jerry Falwell who writes of nuclear Armageddon as if it were a good thing. He believes that will bring on the Rapture. These people are insane, but the domino effect Coupland describes where our technology goes out of control seems very real.

[Friar]

21. the only end I know of for sure

is the nova event of our star. And that's no accident, it's an inevitability. All the other end of the world scenarios are hokem.

[JPace]

3. You know.......

There is sooo much bad news in the world since GW has
occupied the WH......is it necessary to add more crap
to peoples pain by posting things like this?

[Generic Other]

7. Crap? Excuse me?

I find this scenario frighteningly relistic (aside from the Rapture part). I, too, believe the world will end due to someone's foolish actions or a terrible accidental chain of events.

Coupland's scenario which outlines how Christians' beliefs would play out if they carried their ideas to their illogical conclusions is not crap. It's simple science. Instead of attacking the message, why not actually think about what is being said?

Convince me that the country is safe from destruction by people who believe this CRAP and I won't worry about it happening.

[Brian Sweat]

18. You may find the scenario frighteningly realistic,

but that is only because your knowledge of physics is extremely limited. Most of the crap in that little story is not possible.

[HFishbine]

23. YOU read it

The paragraph you posted begins with the rapture -- hardly the "simple science" you claim. All the "accidents" follow because the people have been lifted to heaven.

Unless you buy into the notion of the "born agains" suddenly being called home, you indeed don't have to worry about it hapening.

[Generic Other]

29. You are right the Rapture part is only interesting because none

who believe in it ever think it out to such a grim conclusion as Coupland has, as all BELIEVERS of such a scenario should. Who would wish this scenario on themselves? Only born again Christians. Is it not true, that if the Christians all disappeared as they wish to in such an event, that the rest might follow? Or are you saying that if the people disappeared the machines would simply turn themselves off?

Our infrastructure throughout the country, our missile systems, our nuke plants, etc. are all connected to juryrigged grids.

Add an idiot like Bush in charge, and it might not even be accidental. Of course, a sizeable portion of our country actually believe it will signal some great happy moment for them if the world is destroyed in a flash of light. I find Coupland's alternate vision rather chilling but not unsound science (again given the seemingly impossible scenario).

Do you think there is a point of no return? A point where we have so messed things up that they are not fixable? The tipping point?

Maybe it's just me. I've reached that point.

[HFishbine]

32. What I'm saying

"Is it not true, that if the Christians all disappeared as they wish to in such an event, that the rest might follow? Or are you saying that if the people disappeared the machines would simply turn themselves off?"

What I'm saying is that the only time "Christians" disappear enmass is when they all drink from the same vat of cool aid. So, no, the rest won't follow.

[Ripley]

34. Naughty.

Do you really think cool aid is the correct spelling? Kool-Aid. Dummy.

[HFishbine]

35. D'oh!

My bad. (Betcha didn't think I could spell "d'oh," huh?)

[hang a left]

4. The times are

upon us. Politics are the least of our worries.

[Ripley]

6. Give me a break...

You conspiracy folks sound no different than the end of time folks.

This is nothing but a wake-up call to those global-warming non-believers...

Catch up to the insurance believers, folks. This heating up thing is not only going to make this situation look ridiculously small, but the death count in other countries makes this extremely insignificant. Over 1,000 have died in France from this heat...and we pity those having to walk?

[Generic Other]

8. I'm confused

I don't think the Rapture scenario is likely to happen, but I do think some screw-up or accident is going destroy the planet.

The heating up of the planet is certainly among the critical problems we face. And this is no accident.

The aging infrastructure that maintains our technology is in terrible condition. It's a matter of time. I don't like to think a worm that could mess up my little computer could set off a chain of events that destroyed half the planet. Can Bill Gates gaurantee it won't happen. Ten nuke plants shut down on the east coast right now. What does that mean?? Are you comfortable knowing nuke plants blink on and off because of power failures?

Holy cow. Am I the only paranoid left in the world?

[hang a left]

9. no you are not

everything and everyone is suspect

[Ripley]

10. Remember Y2K?

A lot of people said that would be the end of civilization as we know it.

A lot of people made money off of that hype and a lot of people acted foolishly...leaving jobs, buying 3 years worth of toilet paper, etc.

I agree there are major problems in cities...infrastructures crumbling, etc. but that does not mean the whole society will crumble.

Bill Gates is not in charge, you are. Everyone's computers are not going to fail all at once. Stop thinking in those holocaustic terms.

And you might enjoy tomorrow. ;-)

[Generic Other]

14. Hey I played Sim City before

until I felt so sorry for the unintentional destruction I wreaked that I stopped.

Just because you stop one power outage...it doesn't stop the next 10. And anyone who isn't petrified as long as Bush remains in the White House is in my opinion as lunkheaded as somone looking forward to a Rapture to take them to heaven!

I just hope my recurring nightmares never come true!

[Ripley]

15. Uh, wait a second, how old are you?

No offense. But I really think it might shed some light on this conversation.

[Generic Other]

16. How old am I?

I am the mother of a US veteran if that confirms your theory. Are you implying I have no cause to be concerned. Just climb back under my tinfoil hat? Go shopping? The mall has a sale on?

Damn. The whole friggin' world has a death wish and I'm a nut!

[Ripley]

19. Yes. No. No. Maybe.

I'm proud of you GO for raising a US veteran!!!

I don't have a death wish, but damn, the world lived through some awful times in WWII, Vietnam, Cold War and I don't think the end of the world is any closer now than it was back then. Afterall, it was all about a nuclear war back then.

I agree it all seems hopeless under the Boy King. But please take time to realize your life's ambitions and do the things that bring you joy...don't just focus your energies on this horribly depressing scenario.

If you're a nut, I'm a fruit!!

[Generic Other]

22. Sorry, I don't share your pride in having a son in the military

I think it's sad. The ultimate trick played on my family by this country. A brainwashed boy.

[Ripley]

26. Oh.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I certainly can understand.

I guess my posts here are in the order of trying to raise your spirits. But I guess they didn't work.

I will not let this insane administration continue in 2004 and I am trying to convince every single human I know that we must defeat him and his money.

Peace.

[Generic Other]

30. Sorry

I'm not a flag waving mother.

Maybe seeing all those people on the streets of NYC just got to me. Reminded me too much of another day.

I just can't shake the feeling of dread. Not that OsamaSaddamAlQaeda will get me, but that my own unconscious actions and those of my leaders will be the ones that do me in.

Maybe I should go find Sim City and destroy Baghdad. See if it makes me feel better. :)

edit: I'm kidding. I don't believe in raptures or destroying Iraqi cities.

[Ripley]

33. If GWB can bring about the Endtimes,

then I have as much a chance at the Lotto...damn, I gotta drive out of state to do that...

Stack them up G.O....what is the trigger? Or are you just stating that there are lots of set-ups? Because that has been true forever.

[Catherine Vincent]

36. Yes, I remember Y2K.

And I am one of those that bought a lot of toilet paper. If someone did buy 3 years worth, that's okay. At least it won't go to waste.:)

[Greyskye]

13. Don't look now...

...but the answer is YES

And we're all out to get you!

:evilgrin:

[Fleshdancer]

12. well if that's the case

I'm definately skipping the treadmill tonight.

[Pastiche423]

17. lol!

[leftofthedial]

20. LOL2!

I might as well start drinking now, eh?

[HFishbine]

24. Question

When the rapture does occur, which presidential candidates will be left behind?

[leftofthedial]

25. We have real problems to solve

we really don't need this mythological chicken little bullshit.

[Generic Other]

31. They are saying lightning strike caused the outage

Chicken Little hit!

[LEFTofLEFT]

27. It's the end of the world as we know it...

Have we moved to freepville?

[Ripley]

28. Who sang that .....

Was that REM?