Crisis and Disaster Mindsets - why?

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Tis_Bearself

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On this board and elsewhere, it seems like everything is presented as a crisis, a disaster, the apocalypse.

Just looking at here, we have threads on whether this or that social development or practice will put an end to the Church, whether the USA will come to an end soon, whether the end times are coming or already here.

Everything is presented as a big major deal immediate crisis, instead of taking the view that humanity’s existence presents a constantly evolving set of problems to which we must constantly be developing new solutions and also evolving our own behavior to act with more love for God and neighbor and not repeat psst mistakes.

It’s more exhausting to watch people get wound up bouncing from crisis to crisis than it would be to just deal with whatever the current issues are.

Is it the Internet that brings all the crisis, disaster and doomsday people to the yard, or do people get some charge out of thinking that what’s going on is way worse than just “business as usual”? How does thinking like this help other than making life more “exciting” if you feel you’re in the grip of some major catastrophe?
 
People feel the need to discuss this subject because they feel anxious. Events are in motion now that will dramatically alter their lives. I believe everyone feels something unsavory is coming. Within moderation I believe discussion helps relieve tension and stress. However, assuming something like WWIII is coming, it’s totally out our hands! Too much dwelling on disaster will only breed melancholy depression.
 
Probably because the people who don’t feel it’s a crisis don’t post on those threads.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Everything is presented as a big major deal immediate crisis
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This is generally what young people do. Teenage angst. There are a lot of them on the internet. And I think it extends into young adults too.
Tis_Bearself said:
Is it the Internet that brings all the crisis, disaster and doomsday people to the yard, or do people get some charge out of thinking that what’s going on is way worse than just “business as usual”?
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I think it’s partly the nature of the internet. But, more so, I think it’s inexperienced youth that are seemingly full of anger and/or angst, anxiousness etc…
 
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I dunno, Im no spring chicken, but I worry about the increasing secularization of our society
 
Cruciferi said:
People feel the need to discuss this subject because they feel anxious. Events are in motion now that will dramatically alter their lives. I believe everyone feels something unsavory is coming.
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Hmm, well in my lifetime we have had assassinations, race riots, Vietnam, Watergate, 3 Mile Island, the Ayatollah, Iran hostage crisis, numerous military actions, Saddam, Osama, Oklahoma City Bombing, 9/11, Boston Marathon bombing, several market crashes, and numerous natural disasters, mass killings, and serial killings. If you go back before I was born we had the horrors of WWI and WWII with a major economic depression in between, the Russian and Chinese communists torturing and killing people right and left, Korean Conflict, the atomic bomb, the Cuban missile crisis, and dozens more natural disasters, riots, lynchings, killings. And this is only looking at US perspective, multiply by worldwide and it gets huge.

Short of nuclear war, there’s not much more than could be coming at us than what’s been happening for hundreds of years…people have lived through wars and disasters that we have literally forgotten about, and us just saying “war or disaster” doesn’t begin to capture the true horror people live through on a daily basis. When I read stuff like “Eleni” or “The Rape of Nanking” or about the Dirlewanger Brigade in Warsaw or Lidice, stuff has clearly already gotten as bad as bad can get…yet we are still here trying to do good.
 
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Jesus was born into a society that was arguably more secular than we are now or at least giving it a run for its money. It seems like society has had its ups and downs since then. In some eras people were very concerned with spiritual things but in other eras, people went beyond just secular into actively trying to destroy the Church, and I don’t mean by having a gay march, I mean by torturing and killing all Church members.
 
I think Rome definitely was more secular–they would sometimes absorb local gods into their worship/pantheon, although I don’t think that extended to the God of the Israelites. But they were decadent and bloodthirsty.
But weren’t the Jews a pretty religious bunch? Not perfect, necessarily, but believers nonetheless?
 
We humans have a habit of finding trends and patterns where none or perhaps a different one exist. When it comes to the church or society, there are plenty of examples where a group gets persecuted or any number of tragedies. Add to that the many ways the more apocalyptic positions of the bible can be interpreted…
 
I would add that people seem to read way more drama/disaster into posts, too. It’s not a pornography problem it’s a sex addiction. It’s like the whole internet becomes WebMD. If you put in a symptom cancer is ALWAYS going to be an answer.

I think the anonymous nature gives people the courage to dump what in any other social setting they would keep to themselves. So, you get a few people to spill their fears and all of a sudden it seems far more plausible that their anxiety is actually rational because there are others that feel the same way.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
On this board and elsewhere, it seems like everything is presented as a crisis, a disaster, the apocalypse.
Click to expand...
I think there is a part of the brain that is designed (or evolved?) to worry about the future. Centuries ago, our ancestors had to worry about how to keep warm and fed over the winter. Now that we’ve got that pretty much licked, that brain lobe is looking for something else to worry about.
 
I have a prepper friend who I’ve known over ten years.
She’s convinced disaster is around the corner.
She even told me where her food stash is stored in her house in case her family gets wiped out, maybe my fam can have the good of it.
Her arguments make sense–she extrapolates from the current news (not conspiracy sites).
Nothing has happened yet, there’s been no collapse of infrastructure, and our lives go on the same.
But didn’t prophet Jeremiah warn the people for 20 years before disaster struck?
 
Eh, armageddon’s been coming in the next 5-10 years since before I was born.
 
Disasters are likely going to happen periodically, so someone warning of impending disaster for X number of years will eventually “get lucky”. That’s not to denigrate taking some useful precautions. We all have different places where we draw the line for “reasonable”. I personally think a lot of bad outcomes can be avoided by simply not living in a type of building or geographic area where disasters are likely to occur, and/or by having certain features on your house such as a storm cellar. I realize some people are forced by economic necessity to live in areas that are not very safe, but I’m always amazed at people who have lots of options and choose to live in flood or fire zones, or on the 30th floor of a building dependent on electricity for its locks and elevators. I do not go so far as to have a fallout shelter and buckets of prepper food, however.
 
DarkLight said:
Eh, armageddon’s been coming in the next 5-10 years since before I was born.
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Yes. For example, when I was too young to recall it, the Cuban Missile Crisis prompted my parents to stock up on food and supplies.
 
I didn’t know her than, but I grew up in that time. We just kinda thought nukes from USSR would take us out.
 
The people I talk to about that time, it was 9-11 level scary for them
 
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