Harold Camping is the founder of "Family Radio" and the inventor of a mathematical formula based on his interpretation of the Bible. He claims he has calculated the exact date for the Rapture - the moment when 200 million saved Christians will be called home to Jesus - and that day was Saturday, May 21, 2011.
As in yesterday.
If you're reading this that means Ol' Harold got it wrong again. He famously and erroneously predicted the End Times back in 1994. That's why pencils have erasers.
Then again, what if he got it right?
I considered not writing a column today. I mean, why bother? I also considered not paying May's DWP bill. But I consider not paying every DWP bill, Rapture or no Rapture, so I'm not sure that impulse was entirely divinely inspired.
A lot of snotty comments are flying around the newspaper, TV, radio and Facebook worlds. The "End Is Near!" crowd has always been easy to mock.
But if Camping's apocalypse didn't happen yesterday he simply joins a long list of Chicken Littles who habitually and falsely peddle catastrophe.
Every culture in all epochs of history has been subjected to periodic waves of hysteria. Despite all our alleged modern sophistication, think about how much alarmist nonsense we absorb on a daily basis.
Secondhand smoke.
Global warming. The H1N1 virus. Liberals! Fox News! Cell phone brain cancer. Terrorism. Bankruptcy for Social Security! Sharia Law. Trans-fats.Mexicans! Republicans! Barack Hussein Obama!
Everything's going to kill us. Everything's going to destroy the America we love.
Nonsense.
Not that there aren't diseases and evils to fight. The world will always have villains. But the relentless drumbeat of disaster, doom and gloom either numbs us to actual problems, or morphs into mass paranoia.
Can our kids read? Do we live ethical lives? Have we said hello to our neighbors? While worrying about the world's problems do we ignore our own?
We're told that every budget cut will kill the children; that every tax hike is the Red Fist of Communism. Every trip in our car is an assault on Mother Earth. Every misplaced backpack is a dirty bomb.
No wonder we're popping anti-depressants like they're M&Ms.
Undoubtedly Harold Camping's prophecy is bunk. However, before we smugly dismiss him as a crackpot for believing the Bible, consider the hysterical nonsense we believe because we trust so-called officials whose bread is buttered with fear.
Doug McIntyre's column appears in the Los Angeles Daily News on Wednesdays and Sundays. You can reach him at dncolumnist@dailynews.com.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/columnists/ci_18111792?source=rss
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