What interests me about those who invest all their time and energy in declaring an end to the world isn’t so much their prophetic vision, which for the vast majority I think the word "pathetic" would be more apt, but rather what drives these so-called prophets and seers to loudly espouse such beliefs, and more so, to work night and day to spread their message of gloom and doom to the poor and unfortunate souls that are unlucky enough to share their short lived existence on this planet.
Relatively speaking we’re all doomed to some extent, it’s Mother Nature’s cruel joke upon us all, for whatever hopes and dreams we may share, however fond our memories of our lives upon the earth, a time will come when we can no longer share the Zeitgeist that is the human experience. Perhaps it’s merely a natural mechanism for instilling a firm foundation of homoeostasis in the race, hurry up and live or you will die. Then again religions perform much the same task in society. Christianity, especially the Old Testament breed, likes to wield a hammer where a proverbial scalpel would do such so more to convince the teaming throng of doubters, the unbelievers to live righteously; reproduce, obey or spend eternity with the damned. Although I wouldn’t like to imagine what it must be like in heaven, a rather sickly sweet reward if you ask me, almost treating life as something akin to visiting the dentists. It’s painful but it’s good for you, and if you behave you’ll receive a lollipop for your trouble. Hands up who wants to wear white, play a harp and sit on a cloud all day eating grapes? Okay so I added the grapes, but it all seems a little like Ancient Greece to me, I doubt that even the modern Greeks would want to spend eternity that way.
Religion was once perfect for mankind, a form of crowd control, a way of making sure we didn’t all do something really stupid at once, but that is most certainly history now, so many religious people cause the world more pain and hardship, however unintentional, than those who aren’t that I think the age of the atheist or perhaps merely the agnostic is upon us. We can’t live through another failed prophecy without some kind of organised religion taking some collateral damage. At least the Latter Day Mayans should pay.
I remember once making a Jehovah’s Witness cry, his head in his hands, sitting in the gutter as his mind reeled with my glibly objective observations of his religion; he’d invested so much in one idea he’d never contemplated that perhaps he, his family, his friends and everyone he knew at his local Kingdom Hall were wrong. I eventually reassured him I was joking, I felt so much pity for the guy I had to put him out of his misery. That, I suppose, was a Christian act, although I’m one of the most irreligious people you’d have the misfortune to meet, I do have a heart. Which always made me wonder, especially as a child, why acts of kindness couldn’t simply be left to roam free in the bedazzling chaos, the random sequence of events, the parade of spectacular and dull moments that make up an individual’s life. Why attach them to an external force?
Other religions (including science) like to reassure us that in some form or another we continue our existence as "something else", Buddhists believe in reincarnation, which again, as a child, made me wonder… is this cat a dead relative? Is that slug Hitler? Is there a snowy peaked mountain of Native American Indians, or a Nazi formation of fungus lying in a cave? Do they know?
How much consciousness does an ant actually experience, and how can it at all prove itself to be worth more, perhaps a spider, or even a small rodent of some kind? Is the currency based upon the evolutionary chain anyway? It all became too confusing for me, I eventually rejected Buddhism and found myself, if only for my late childhood relying on a simple principle that energy cannot die, it is simply transformed, and that all matter is merely energy pulsating at a lower frequency.
However, when I look at this world, and what a mess we’ve made of it, I have to admit however quietly that perhaps it would be best if the whole experiment was called off. I used to have dreams of being the only person in the world, I was most likely an adolescent at the time; life was becoming hectic, my father would only visit every other week as according to the divorce agreement, my sister had begun to whine incessantly for all of mother’s attention, when she could afford to show some. The family was disintegrating, our grandparents were either dead or lived far away by now. Friends were very few and far between, and those I did make would rather ride bikes or kick a ball around, no one was there to simply discuss the strangeness of being alive, apart from the occasional psychologist, but their time was expensive.
So I would dream, and in those dreams I’d sail boats, drive cars, ride trains without drivers, I once wandered into Cape Canaveral and attempted to fire up a rocket, it exploded, I was singed but survived. All there were on the planet were plants and animals and the remains of a human civilisation, almost as if everyone else had decided to up sticks and leave one day and none of them had thought to mention the great exodus to me, but I didn’t mind. No really. I actually rather miss those dreams, it was nice to see nature reclaim the streets, the tower blocks, the air was cleaner, the sky was bluer, the water crystal clear, and the only sounds I remember hearing were the dawn chorus and the occasional flock of geese as they flew by. I’ve been there, at the end of the world, and apart from the total decimation of the human race it isn’t too half bad. In fact it made a nice change.
But back to the prophets and seers and their religion of annihilation, I wonder what drives them because I’m currently working on my 9th piece in the Indoor Street Art Series entitled "Doomsayer". I was drunk with lack of sleep staring at a low-resolution rip of a documentary about the impending date 2012, yes the Mayans’ prophecy or is it Nostradamus, whoever it is to blame they sure have got a lot of so-called experts’ knickers in a twist. A terrifying alignment of the Sun and the Milky Way seems to be the main reason for the catastrophe, I’m 99% sure that nothing will actually happen, or at least not on the 21st of December that year, but I am curious as to what believers of the theory get out of purveying the message. Are they depressed, do they simply harbour suicidal tendencies and want to sociopathically preach their misery to the rest of us? I’m openly miserable, I spout all sorts of nonsense all the time, but I’ve never once thought it would change the minds of others, I’m not a prophet, I’m not a guru, I’m not a soothsayer, I’m Paul and I do what I can do get by, that’s it. If I thought I was anything more I’d probably be back in the loony bin. I know I’m doing this for my own sanity not yours, I’m not warning you of what comes next because as far as I can tell I have absolutely no idea. Belief has no control over destiny, it’s merely a coping mechanism, not the dictator of fate or destiny.
So, to the prophets, the seers, the sages, the guys carrying sandwich boards like a cross, emblazoned with the words "The End is Nigh", why do they want us all to know? it’s not as if we can do anything about it? How does one prepare for the end of the world anyway?
Doomsayer by Paul Baines (Work in Progess)
I assume it’s all to do with religion, those who spread the message believe that an infinite being, a deity with the power to create a universe is keeping a special eye on them, and regularly nodding with agreement at their just actions. Perhaps it’s best to simply live, live as you’d like to, try and find some worth of some form, in one’s existence, or relationships, or thoughts, actions, whatever you can muster. That would make sense to me, I mean you could be run over by a bus tomorrow, would that be a personal Armageddon, or simply an accident? Or is that fate? Who knows, who cares. I’ve spent whole nights at parties in my teens, my mind smashed on some substance or other, having what seemed at the time to be fascinating conversations with fascinating strangers. Perhaps I should’ve danced more, perhaps I should’ve made out with the most gorgeous babe flirting with the jocks, but hey, I didn’t realise it was the end of the world back then.
Anyway, live, love, laugh, if it comes it comes.
There are always going to be naysayers who will lead their people into a cave to catch a comet, into the jungle to drink poison, or into a walled compound to die in a fire.
I grew up in the 60s thinking the world was going to end. I made choices that I would not have made if I had hope for the future. We are dooming another generation to living in fear.
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