Brief History of DOOM, with Original Poem
"He's a rocket scientist, so…"
That was how I knew the doom was scheduled for September of 1988, when a friend at work handed me a mimeograph copy of some plain old fear; a prediction and warning from a guy named Edgar Whisenant, NASA scientist and mathematician, who had allegedly used some rocket science and an ordinary Bible to predict the exact month and year of what he had called "The Rapture".
The Rapture, as far as I could remember, was a thing wherein several dozen people vanish from the earth, and the rest of us would notice that they were gone because their righteousness was no longer being shoved in our faces. Those who hadn't vanished would look around, and at themselves, and realize how rotten we all really must be, followed then by unspecified doom. I can't really remember the rest, but the biblical Rapture was generally meant to be seen as a pretty crummy situation for most people, and Edgar Whisenant, rocket scientist, had possibly figured out exactly when that awful day would be.
Want to see something biblical?
It was the eighth consecutive year of the grueling '80's, a best-forgotten, harsh world of hard hair and gruesome music, and with Whisenant's fancy NASA credentials taken into account as the main strength of his doomy forecast, I began the process of preparing to watch the end of the world, due within just a few weeks, and since it was my first doomsday event, I was both excited and terrified of what was to become of me. I watched the calendar with dread, and then I switched over and watched the clock on the eve of destruction, having done all of the preparation that I could think of for my final hours of life.
Sweet life! It just hadn't been long enough, and to think that it would all be gone-- the joy, the smiles, music, the dog, my weed-- all would be gone, and with no survivors on the lonely planet, even the sadness and despair would no longer have a conduit to enter the world. It would all be over.
The next day, I got up, drove to work, and quickly forgot about the whole affair. There had been no Rapture, no doom.
This is what happened. Edgar Whisenant's big day came and went, and despite his making several new predictions in the weeks following, either the Rapture still didn't happen, or it was not a big deal. Maybe it had happened, but with no doom to speak of, nobody had noticed it. Meanwhile, I had fooled with it enough, I had personally raptured away the last of my smoke, and I had bills to pay, after all.
graphic depiction of what didn't happen
A Brief History of Doom
As it turned out, there had been lots of doomsday predictions from various prophets before 1988, and even though 'THE END' kept on not happening, the predictions of our last day on earth still appeared regularly throughout history.
William Bramley is a historian who set out to write a book on the history of warfare, but ended up writing a great 'UFO History' book instead. In his 'The Gods of Eden', there's a whole chapter on doomsday prophets, [LINK] where he details how these doomsday predictions, sometimes known as "Judgement Day", or the "Apocalypse", were often planted into the minds of humanity repeatedly, and in similar fashions, and that a pattern could be seen in the distribution of this perennial fear-mongering.
Whatever the source of the doom prophecies, some recurring themes emerged in the old stories; an "angel", or just a bright light and an eerie voice, would often deliver profound knowledge, wisdom, and finally the DOOM, to an ordinary person, who could then go tell everybody, start a new religion, or just scare the daylights out of friends and family with horrifying descriptions of 'The End'.
The plot of the story tended to go something like this;
* Regular person has meeting with a 'supernatural being'.
* Supernatural being gives regular person some esoteric spiritual truth.
* Beings offer an alternative version of the planet's history.
* Beings then whip out the DOOM, and maybe a 'thou shalt' or two.
"There will be a great deluge of dystopian-grey paint..."
Apocalypse Online
"The word apocalypse comes from the Greek words ”apo-“ (off) and “kalyptein” (to cover). An apocalypse is therefore “the taking off of a cover,” i.e., revelation."
Since the real Apocalypse has now already happened, (The Internet!) those 'supernatural' beings don't bother with mountaintop light-shows or theatrics anymore, they just start a blog, or make cryptic comments under videos, and probably don't need to stage as many personal 'spooky burning bush' meetings as they did in the past to peddle the prophecies of fear.
your search for 'blue earth' sounded nice, but how about some doom instead?
On the modern Internet, the old doom formula can still be seen, and if you click the thing just right, there will be somebody online telling you an alternative Earth history, then frothing about a true but religious-sounding devotional discovery, followed by certain DOOM, then in moments you will be offered, for $19.95 (IF you order now) the instructions for how to survive the always-upcoming event.
Perhaps salvation can be found by building yourself a "Merkaba", which is apparently a geometric protective ball of light that can be developed with only a few years of intense, focused meditation, so that you can then simply ride out the storm as everyone else gets creamed. Looking over the complex instructions for this spirit Merkaba, most people realize quickly that they will never do the work, and that they are just going to die. Doom!
I just know I'm going to blow this.
Sometimes it looks like the doom and fear is still piped into the human consciousness with the same old cataclysmic message, but now with a broader online audience, the 'net' is used to capture more individuals directly, where the doom begins with something like,"Greetings, from your space family!", written by apparent aliens who can make the end of the world sound nice, and that instead of worrying about dying, we should be preparing ourselves to be "Harvested", instead of just cut down. It does sound nicer.
"Yes, we're all going to die, but that's just so negative sounding. Yes, the world is ending, but are you the kind of disembodied soul that we are looking for? Your space family, before they can save you, will need to see some ID-- have you done enough 'service to others' to qualify?" Most people will doubt and second-guess their own goodness, questioning themselves enough to prevent any hopeful ideas of being rescued by space brothers, and fear and death is offered as the only other option. Doom.
How I Survived Doomsday
After 1988, there was a world to rebuild. The '80's may have been wretched, but the Doom didn't happen, and life had to go on for most Earthlings. Looking back to 1988, those days leading up to the end had been special for me, and I realized that something valuable had been gained from that bogus doom.
I had actually begun practicing living like it was my last day, which meant more presence of mind, and it meant that some introspection-- which was probably overdue-- was done. I remembered, just for a few days, what it was like to be a child, with no such thing as a future. Every moment would have to be the very best, from now on, since the upcoming doom dictated that there would be time for only a few more moments of anything.
Live every day like it's my last? It's not a bad way to live, I've tried it.
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Original poem by therealpaul, here we go:
The Last Day
It's the last day.
I don't want catastrophe to contaminate my thoughts today.
A precious feeling showed, one to hold on to and nurture for a moment.
Don't wait for the longer shadows, dance the blue Earth's morning play.
In geographic heavy traffic, hold on to that center lane!
Practice with your mighty swords, I'll even try to understand.
But right now? Not right now, it's the last day!
Spend your last old dollar, you won't be needing that again.
It's the last day!
Do it with a smile, that's all you can afford right now.
this image by @therealpaul
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thanks for reading, let me know somehow if you like my poetry or my two original flower photos above.
for a detailed look at the history of doom, I always go to The Gods of Eden.
unless noted, all above images (except dandelion photo) thanks to Pixabay
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