And we knew we would be. That's the fun part.
It's great fun making light about the end of humanity... mostly because there is no downside. If we are right (and we have been in 100% of cases so far) humanity will continue trudging on as it has since our savanna days.
And if we are wrong... well, bugger it. At least we had a laugh.
I've always been captivated how the End of Days captures our collective imagination and always has. I remember reading something about ancient Rome around the time of the Christian persecutions of Emperor Nero.
Christians at the time were betting on the End Times. Jesus' return was just around the corner and the End of Times would soon be upon them.
That was 2000 years ago and every once in a while a supermarket rag will be listing off the 'Signs of the Biblical Apocolypes!' Also Michigain Gives Birth to Alien.
Interstellar baby daddy demands paternity test.
The point is, every generation thinks that it's going to be the last.
Our parents thought sure a nuclear holocaust was on the horizon.
Their parents envisioned a world lead to destruction by the Nazi party or Communism
Their parents were watching a World War that would surely signal the end.
Their parents heard the loudest sound in recorded history, the Krakatoa explosion, surely the whole Earth was exploding.
Their parents may have been escaping famines across all of Europe including the Great Irish Famine which killed a quarter of the population.
Their parents were probably a tad apprehensive about Napoleon little party wagon across the face of Europe.
Of course their parents may remember the time France and the rest of Europe were facing peasant uprisings that threatened the very fabric of their societies.
And their parent's may remember expelling the entire Arcadian civilization in Nova Scotia during the French Indian war. Part of our fascination may be the fact that, for some, the world as they know it really does end. A lot.
See also the Hordes of Genghis Khan.
The fall of the Roman Empire.
You have to laugh. You have to because sometime, it really will be The End.
Even if we manage to keep from nuking ourselves or polluting the planet to the point of being uninhabitable... well the sun will explode someday. Give it a couple billion years.
If we escape that, the Milky Way Galaxy is going to hit Andromeda causing unknown havoc in about 5 billion years.
Failing that... well eventually most of the energy in the Universe will be used up and all of Creation will undergo heat death or have the very sub-atomic particles ripped apart.
You have to laugh, really.
So raise a glass to The End. May we always greet it with a drink in one hand, and raising a defiant middle finger with the other. May every Apocalypse be as uneventful.
