Ho hum, just another doomsday scenario
By Michel Pireu
BusienssDay
Someone on the radio was predicting a cataclysmic event the other day — yet again. The outcome was going to be usual storms, earthquakes, tidal waves, sun flares and, worst of all, a stock market crash.
It reminded me that the world was supposed to end on May 5 2000 when a rare planetary alignment was going to wreak havoc. In his book Ice: The Ultimate Disaster, Richard Noone predicted that earth would find itself alone on one side of the sun while Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, would be aligned in a straight line on the other side of the sun and that this would cause the Antarctic ice cap to slip into the ocean and initiate “a recurring global disaster”.
The book’s success brought out a whole bunch of other doomsayers: astrologers, cultists, Bible “decoders” and a variety of pseudoscientists. A few of their predictions are still on the internet.
Rus Logush, an astrologer, said we could expect major wars, and unusual natural disasters. “Any of the political hot spots, such as the Balkans, Russia, Middle East, India/Pakistan, N/S Korea may escalate to crisis levels. Earthquakes may devastate major industrial centres. There could be a global economic shake-up.”
Sterling Allan, a “Bible code” interpreter, said that the number 55, as in May 5, was a hot number. Using it, he came up with words like: celestial, harmonics, foretold, darkness, smoke, blackness, tempest, gloom, chaff, tares, winnowing, mother earth, changes.
The Adelphi Organisation predicted that dormant volcanoes would burst forth, great tidal waves would devastate coastal regions, new mountain ranges would be thrust up, and howling winds would generate choking clouds of dust. This was all going to take place during a three-day worldwide earthquake “against which nothing will stand”.
What did scientists think was going to happen when the planets lined up on May 5? Absolutely nothing, which is precisely what did happen.
Much like what happens to the stock market every day despite the abundance of prophets with nutty theories.
THE story of the stockbroker who goes to see his shrink is an old one …
The stockbroker, loosened his tie, took off his jacket and lay down on the couch. The psychiatrist, sat next to him in his chair, and the stockbroker waited for the first probing question.
“M&R” said the psychiatrist.
“M&R,” repeated the stockbroker.
“It’s gone too high now, don’t you think?” Suggested the psychiatrist.
The stockbroker mulled over the possible unconscious implications of this.
“I took on a lot of M&R, when it was way down a few years ago,” said the psychiatrist, “and now it seems to have come back a little too much. Should I still be holding it?”
The stockbroker sat up. “It’s going to be all right,” he said, in a soothing tone. “It’s going to work out just fine.”
The psychiatrist slid into a more relaxed position. “I worry about M&R,” he confessed.
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