Does the average human—on being convinced the world is about to end—behave better—or worse? Do they try and hold back the end—or do they rape and pillage?
Given the current level of technology the end IS nigh, the world WILL end, for every person individually, in less than a century. On average it’ll happen around the 77-year mark for males in the US. This has been the case through all of history (for most of it at a much younger age) and yet people generally do not rape and pillage. Nor are they more likely to do so as the end of their world approaches.
Thus, I do not think there is much reason for concern.
People care (to varying degrees) about how the world will be after they die. People even care about their own post-mortem reputations. I think it’s reasonable to ask whether people will behave differently if they anticipate that the world will die along with them.
Given the current level of technology the end IS nigh, the world WILL end, for every person individually, in less than a century. On average it’ll happen around the 77-year mark for males in the US. This has been the case through all of history (for most of it at a much younger age) and yet people generally do not rape and pillage. Nor are they more likely to do so as the end of their world approaches.
Thus, I do not think there is much reason for concern.
People care (to varying degrees) about how the world will be after they die. People even care about their own post-mortem reputations. I think it’s reasonable to ask whether people will behave differently if they anticipate that the world will die along with them.
The elderly are not known for their looting and rabble-rousing tendencies—partly due to frailty and sickness.
Those who believe the world is going to end do sometimes cause problems—e.g. see The People’s Temple and The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.