Since human society emerged, there has probably been a sense of impending doom. Life is nasty brutish and short, and for some nastier, more brutish and shorter than others. Bible enthusiasts seem to revel in the weird and rather ridiculous book of revelations and use it periodically to predict the end of the world, and of course for everyone, on a personal level, the world will end as far as they are concerned.
Of course the world will end, as far as humans are concerned, sooner or later. Probably by natural causes; a meteorite strike or a new disease, something beyond our power to control.
I am old enough to remember the Bay of Pigs incident, which placed us within a hairs breadth of war with Russia. It was I suspect a game of cat and mouse with both sides bluffing and counterbluffing, but is was a very scary time even for those of us who did not understand what was happening. It wasn't very long after the end of WW2 and for many the memory of the use of nuclear weapons was very clear, and their use again did not seem an impossibility. Now we talk about MAD, mutually assured destruction, and we hope that the situation of a stalemate will always prevent the lunatic use of such devices. We hope that our leaders will have the sense and the humanity to resist any temptation to start something that cannot be stopped.
Now we have the rise of the ultra right and their barmy racist attitudes. Both sides of the Atlantic seem under the influence of the lunatic fringe and it is they that are calling the shots. Property and shares are the most important criteria and people will come a way down the list in terms of priorities.
A fragmenting Europe and a fragmenting UK cannot be seen as a good thing and yet there are those who promote Nationalism as the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe we are doomed after all; maybe we should be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMq66DhYUmM
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