No, because the world isn’t falling apart, you are just becoming more aware of the world.
Climate and environmental science say no.
Don’t worry, things have been falling apart since at least the beginning of written history, and most certainly longer. At the same time, wonderful things have also been happening during all that time.
Just make sure you take good care of yourself and of the people around you.
Things falling apart 1000 years ago because of the magic man in the sky and things falling apart now because of overpopulation, greed, global warming and wars on a global scale aren’t exactly the same in my opinion.
Thanks for the good vibes, internet stranger. Also for spitting straight facts: world always seems to be “falling apart, for reals this time” every other decade since…forever, and yet we’re still here doing the best we can.
Don’t worry, things have been falling apart since at least the beginning of written history, and most certainly longer. At the same time, wonderful things have also been happening during all that time.
Not like this, other than the cold war, we were never so close to a global catastrophe like climate change.
The world has been falling apart for a while. It’s just more visible when we’re connected. If anything, recent extreme political rhetoric in some areas might drive more people into cults (looking at you, MAGA-types)
A few people here have pointed this out already, but people have thought the End was pretty Nigh for about as long as we’ve been thinking about things.
Other people are countering this point by saying, ‘Ah, but this time it’s real!’ which doesn’t prove anything. People thought it was real all those previous times (the ecological collapse on Easter Island, or the Bronze Age collapse, or the Roman Civil Wars, or the Black Death, or the French Revolution or the Cold War etc.) and not many of them killed themselves or joined suicide cults, so why would people act differently now?
This isn’t to be pollyannaish about things. All the examples I gave above really did kill huge numbers of people and the Cold War in particular really could’ve caused the collapse of modern civilisation (if a nuclear war had broken out). Climate change, war and resurgent fascism are truly huge problems. I just don’t think the particular example of suicide cults is a very likely development.
I should start a cult.
More money when you run them.
More fun to join then tho
I regularly get told that I look like Jesus, so…
Likewise. I also have a small dungeon.
Umm… I kinda am leaning in a different direction with my cult.
But maybe we can pretend to be enemies, so our followers have a holy mission?
You know all your acolytes are just gonna end up in my dungeon, right?
You mean the Walkers of Light?
Yeah, they’re gonna walk light on down into my dungeon.
Well it will be well lot and your ask save on electricity in the long run.
deleted by creator
Fantasy football league?
I think some deathcults where the whole point is “live to 50, throw a massive party for the cult and go on a month long vacation, then kill yourself” might get some members. But they won’t really be that influential.
Most likely will be the rise of the “work the least possible, care the least possible” culture. China already saw it happen, it was called “Lying flat”.
Given the number of peers I have who agree that we don’t want to live past 65 in a world where retiring in a house you own is a pipe dream I can definitely see that happening. I myself don’t expect to live past 65.
deleted by creator
it’s either avoid the food wars or try to make it to the star wars
No; people will always have hope.
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
spoiler
It’s a Warhammer 40.000 quote. It’s supposed to be depressing :P
Millenarianism doesn’t tend to have an association with famines or anything like that. It’s usually closer to a feeling of alienation and disruption of social contracts that drives it. Was very common during colonialism due to that reason.
I think climate change will probably cause some of this sort of thing. A decade might be too soon, but might not be, either.
What you’re saying already has a cult following, especially the Mother Gaia types. Forecasting the end has been a thing for hundreds of years (at least).
We’re already breaking suicide records:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/10/health/suicide-deaths-record-high-2022/index.html
Does that mean yes?
it doesn’t mean no
It’s sad how easily this generation is taken in by mass propaganda. We laughed at the propaganda when it started, but then it worked it’s way into the school system and kids have been indoctrinated into it for 20+ years.
Look at the “solutions” to the “end of the world” scenarios. They all involve giving up your freedom and wealth and giving the governments more money and more power.
They took critical thinking out of the schools and it has left an entire generation unable to think for itself and more than happy to let those in control maintain their power over them.
You say that as if critical thinking was ever taught in school.
deleted by creator
Why join a suicide pact or death cult when you could just buy a SUV and eat Meat every day? Take the whole population with you.
For the cult part, on one hand probably yeah because cults prey on vulnerable people.
But also the religious/psuedoscience aspect(s) might prevent some people from being interested and without that it’d likely veer more towards being classified as a gang/criminal-org. So it probably won’t be dramatic.I would say it could be more like a tribe or something similar, but with communities eroded away as they are now I doubt that will work out on a meaningful scale. From the difficulty of being able to provide food and housing (and that’s now, before things get really bad) to people who might not be able to “pull their weight” or just general distrust of people on top of other issues like location and transportation.
Any half-decent option will probably spring up organically from people who have some connection already. I’m sure there are plenty of people now who don’t have much of anything tying them down but there is neither a destination nor a community or means to get to one. With no information/contact, nothing about that will probably change especially when you think about actual chances things will work out as desired.
Preventable deaths will likely be the more dramatic rise, especially related to heat and natural disasters.
Yes. Definatly. Not necessarily because of the world going one way or another but because our global population is rapidly increasing. 1 decade is enough to increase the global population by 1 billion people.
deleted by creator
