© Copyright 2012 Danny Mendlow. – Please Distribute Widely.
Despite the seemingly never-ending onslaught of rather convincing evidence that human industrial civilization is plunging off a literal and figurative cliff, the majority of people interviewed in a recent poll are not sold. The prevailing sentiment was astonishingly one of apathy and a smug lack of concern, rather than one of desperation and a need for serious alterations to their way of life.
“I’m not impressed yet, if this is the best you conspiracy lunatics can come up with, you’ve got work to do,” snorted James Aldervale in contempt for the concept that things are heading downhill. In an all too common reaction, James seemed to blame the mere concept of a collapsing society on anyone who pointed out that it was quite likely happening. “You doomsday lot can keep trying to bring down the world with your hippie, voodoo prophecies, but what you need to do is go out and get a job and stop complaining. Things are fine.”
James became even more indignant when presented with a very rudimentary, ‘off the top of the head’ list of things which are not fine, or have not been remotely fine in recent years, including but not limited to:
- Bloody revolutions in Egypt, Syria and Libya
- Violently suppressed protests in Iran, Greece, Spain, England, Canada, USA, Russia…
- Economic collapses in Greece, USA, UK, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Italy…
- Devastating natural disasters in Chile, USA, China, Japan, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia…
- Ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan…
- Bloodshed, war, rape, poverty, enslavement and mass genocide in the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Malawi…
- Imminent threat of World War 3 starting in Israel, Palestine, Iran, North Korea, South China Sea, Pakistan, India, China, Phillipines…
- Catastrophic oil spills and ecological disasters as increasingly desperate attempts to find oil show that we are running out of easily accessible middle-eastern supplies in the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, Nigeria, China…
“Well yeah, so? That stuff happens all the time. Remember 911? And how about Y2K? We survived that pretty good, didn’t we? All you people said that was the end of the world too, but here I am, still standing!”
After interviewing and polling a few thousand James Aldervales, it became increasingly clear that there wasn’t much point in trying to convince people of something they obstinately refused to acknowledge as even a remote possibility. The mere concept of things going downhill was such an offensive notion to so many participants in the survey, that violence was routinely threatened, and occasionally narrowly averted.
“Fuck you!” Screamed Jerry Dhaliwal while hurling a nearby set of still plugged in music speakers at the crew.
“What are you, some kind of Christians or something?” said the highly skeptical and bothered Kim R. Sutherland. “Ooooh, scary apocalypse. Get real.”
84% of respondents claimed they had no idea what we were talking about, while a shocking 94% said that humanity was headed for its golden age and there was nothing to worry about. One dumbfounded respondent replied: "Well even if it does collapse I'm sure there will be an App for that."
About the only reassuring results of the survey was the humility and honesty of those small few who answered that they were concerned or very concerned with the near future of the species.
“Man, all you have to do is read the news and you’d be crazy to not start seeing patterns and warnings almost on a daily basis,” sighed Alf Friedrich. “Me and my family have moved out of the city and started farming our own food, practicing life without electricity, building relationships with our neighbours. It’s gonna get real tough real soon, and we’re just doing our best to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be, mentally, spiritually and physically.”
“Shut your whining sissy boy!” screamed a random onlooker who would go on to lose his job to downsizing the following week.
And as an angry mob formed and chased poor Alf and his family out of town and back to their hideaway off in the hills, Alf and this reporter had a revelation.
Maybe those aren’t the sorts of people we’d like to be trying to live harmoniously with when it does all come crashing down.
Maybe it’s best if they stay right where they are. Mentally, spiritually and physically.
Expert Reporting by,
Danny Mendlow
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Danny is an award winning screenwriter, professional stand-up comedian and versatile content producer with Timshel Pictures and his comedy website http://toofar.tv. Danny has been writing about political and social issues on his personal blog since 2010 and really wishes his words could change the world, but is not terribly convinced that's possible. Danny Mendlow's first novel, a science fiction satire co-written by Zack Mitchell is completed and preparing for publication and distribution in late 2012. You can read more of his blogs at http://dannymendlow.wordpress.com/.
