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No, The World Isn’t Ending — But Here’s Why Some People Want You To Think It Is.
Fear is power, and the ways it is being used right now are effective — but they’re not invincible.
Ah, 2020. This year has been called a lot of things, and most of them can’t be spoken of in polite company. Truly, it has been the crowning jewel in a treasure trove of a disastrous decade, at least by the estimation of most currently-living people (and really, who else’s opinions matter?).
How do we hate thee, 2020? Let us count the ways. Of course there’s the pandemic and the ensuing loss of life and wellbeing that has followed in its wake. There are forest fires and hurricanes, flooding in some places and severe drought in others, and the lurking questions about how they tie into the ongoing global climate change crisis.
There is extreme political division in the West, with ideologies clashing on pretty much every imaginable issue that comes up for discussion. There is persecution in the East, from continued lynchings and horrifying rape cases in India to crackdowns in China, Myanmar, and Russia. The Arab world is beset once again by internal conflict, with the situation in Yemen reaching new lows and tensions in Iraq increasing yet again as sectarian divides yawn wide.
