Is the End approaching?

[DeterminedJuliet]

I have memorized this song, for just such an occasion.
http://youtu.be/7ILNpR9DfYE

Seriously, my husband and I have a pact that if the "world ends" while we're around, we're going to get wasted and sing this song ad nauseum.

[OldGit]

^ Aaah, what about the little fellow?

I know just what I'd like to be doing as the world ends, but Mrs Git wouldn't let her in the house.

[DeterminedJuliet]

^ Aaah, what about the little fellow?

I'm betting that the world doesn't end before he's 19, afterwhich, he can join us. If he wants to. 

[xSilverPhinx]

...And take up smoking again...

Ah, I forgot all about that.  Nine years and I still miss those stupid suckers.  So I'd lay upon my rotting roof, smoking, looking at the stars, looking for the predicted gravitationally unbound nomad killer planet, while reminiscing what a really really great run humanity made of it.

There's something just...really awesome about imagining a planet slowly but surely take up the entire horizon.

It's one of those things - if I have to go, I'd want to go like that, being totally obviated by an incoming planet.

It seems like everything would go nuts waaay before the actual impact, so I don't know that we would be around to see it.  Like, I'm picturing the gravitational force of the planet totally messing up the tides and whatnot, which would probably mess up the weather and kill all the food and whatnot.  Not to mention blocking out the sun and causing some kind of nuclear winter.

But what do I know, the picture of a planet filling up the whole sky is definitely a cool mental image.

By my calculations it would take about 33 hours at 20km/s for a planet to reach us from as far away as venus (at its closest). I'm guessing that we'd not feel any undue gravitational forces before then. So we'd have less than two days to enjoy the spectacle while the world goes bonkers around us.
I'd grab for my tobacco pipe, a bottle of Chateauneuf De Pape, some french cheese and, of course, some liquorice, find a nice spot to sit and watch the sky and relax with a smile.

EDIT: OOPS! recalculation... make that 22 days.
So, I'll get very fat and very drunk, but will have more time to relax with a smile...

I think the nuclear winter would probably be a bigger immediate concern, I don't know how much something large eclipsing the sun would do in just a few hours tme, the effects could be rather extreme, I think.

Or if the moon crashes into the planet or has its orbit messed up in which case it would also crash into Earth. That would be something.

[Sweetdeath]

This a bit scary to think of all this stuff

[The Magic Pudding]

So, I'll get very fat and very drunk, but will have more time to relax with a smile...

AH HA!

The fat rightest stereotype takes hold in the end. 

[Ali]

Hahahahahahahaha They all revert to type in the end, don't they? 

[Hector Valdez]

All of these responses are very disconcerting. I don't put any stock in the Mayan 2012 "prophecy", but I am sincerely worried about the increasing frequency with which the western world is experiencing panic after panic, crisis after crises, and upheaval after upheaval.

Even more concerning is the apathy and the attitude of avoiding the problem with drugs, or sex, or beer. In the event of mass chaos or societal collapse, I see the pending triumph of excess and celebration. It is as if all the children of western culture relish the idea of laughing like circus clowns, all while the towers topple and the schools blow up. There is a desire to dance on the ashes of the burning flags.

I see this, and I wonder where that noble ambition fled, that promise of enlightenment that lead us to the re-evaluation of values.

Is this the result of Nietchze and and Sartre? Is this the fruit of Locke and Sexton? Have we lost all sense of honor and greatness that in the face of death we have no will to step away? Do we shake hands with the snake that bites us, and drink its venom as of vodka?

I am scared. I am terrified. There is such apathy and anger and destruction falling all around us, and yet I feel alone in wanting to survive. While others toast the flames, I mourn the loss of greatness. Shall I still, when all is still and done, salute the flag that's crushed beneath the boots of punk-goth vampires? Shall I be the last to paint my face with woad?

Where is the honor? Where is the glory? Where is the drive to live and love and make and know? What have we become when all we know is anger held by birds? Greed espoused by grand theft auto? Do you not see or know, why I have come to know despair? Do you not know? Do you not know?

Do you not care to sing the funeral dirges of a dying age?

[Asmodean]

A bit too emotional to be taken quite seriously enough, but nicely enough written, RR.

If the shit hits the fan, well, then the fan will get shitty. I, for one, like numbers and statistics, and if it was forecast that ninety five out of every hundred in my area will die as a result of some event, I would consider myself among the soon-to-be-dead. I would not attempt to make it into the unlucky few to survive unless there was something I in fact could do to increase my chances above at least five percent.

As for honor and glory and all the other crap that is utterly useless to the dead... Why bother? Make your last hours as pleasant as possible and then... An eternity of nothing. If you survive, then you can start being honorable and gaining glory if you so wish. Me, I'd be more inclined to become a scavanger - at least for a time.

[Stevil]

Anyone seen the old animated movie, When the Wind Blows?

About an elderly couple, preparing for imminent nuclear war. The bomb goes off, they get progressively sicker and sicker, and throughout they keep a very positive, denial attitude.
When the Wind Blows

[Hector Valdez]

I think my particular intensity of emotion might have influenced the writing of that post. I genuinely feel very upset and concerned about this topic. Furthermore, I hope you can understand that in the face of an unfeeling firmament and an uncaring universe, it is honor and the goodness of man which holds me to life. Even in death I will hold an honorable death as more valuable than an apathetic one.

The result is that I care to live. I care to succeed and grow and not to perish. In fact, the very idea of simply accepting a fate of death is anathema. I can not, and I will not accept it.

I apologize, but I am currently getting very upset and worked up about this. I feel perhaps it is best that I step away from the computer for a few minutes. I...need to calm down. I need to calm down. I will be back.

[Asmodean]

I think my particular intensity of emotion might have influenced the writing of that post. I genuinely feel very upset and concerned about this topic. Furthermore, I hope you can understand that in the face of an unfeeling firmament and an uncaring universe, it is honor and the goodness of man which holds me to life. Even in death I will hold an honorable death as more valuable than an apathetic one.

Everyone who likes to think that they exist more than to continue their existence has something personally important to live for. And I suppose I've heard worse, if equally valid, reasons for living than honor and goodness of man.

I disagree on the point of one death being more valuable than another when faced with an end of days kind of event, but again, I think this is a personal thing.

The result is that I care to live. I care to succeed and grow and not to perish. In fact, the very idea of simply accepting a fate of death is anathema. I can not, and I will not accept it.

I don't necessarilly want to be dead. However, if whatever I do to preserve my life does nothing to substantially increase my chances, I see no reason to try anyways. If failure is a near-certainty, I prefer to opt out of fighting.

I apologize, but I am currently getting very upset and worked up about this. I feel perhaps it is best that I step away from the computer for a few minutes. I...need to calm down. I need to calm down. I will be back.

Have a smoke - works for me 

[Ali]

RR - I thought we were talking about inevitable destruction like a planet crashing into Earth.  We wouldn't survive that, no matter how we acted or what we did/  My philosophy is that if I know I can't survive it, I would prefer to die with a laugh on my lips.  I don't think that's dishonorable or even particularly undignified.  Now, if it were something that I had a chance of surviving, like something a lot less global, like say a personal illness, then sure, I would fight to live.  I usually love life, and I have plenty to live for.  But if there is no chance anyway, I really don't see the point in making my last days scary and upsetting.  I would rather spend them eating good and fattening foods and laughing with my loved ones.  And smoking.  LOL

[Sandra Craft]

I am sincerely worried about the increasing frequency with which the western world is experiencing panic after panic, crisis after crises, and upheaval after upheaval.

Has there really ever been a time when the world, Western or Eastern, has not been experiencing these things?  Humans make messes -- everything living does but because of our brains humans tend to make bigger ones.  If there's been a time when this was not so, I haven't seen it recorded in anything other than fairy tales, and the occasional discovery of a previsouly hidden people whose culture hasn't progressed in eons.  Personally, I'm willing to trade modern weaponry for modern medicine and dentistry.

Do you not care to sing the funeral dirges of a dying age?

Absolutely not.  Everything dies, it's inevitable and if now is the time for us, I'm going out partying.

[Asmodean]

Absolutely not.  Everything dies, it's inevitable and if now is the time for us, I'm going out partying.

Yes. Much better that way.