WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Rant0matic: “Apocalypse Fatigue” or Why Won’t At-Risk Boomers Panic About the Wuhan Virus?
byVanderleunonMarch 20, 2020
Buck Throckmorton at Ace rants on Apocalypse Fatigue: BUSINESS INSIDER: “Frustrated Millenials Say They Can’t Get Their Aging Parents to Cancel Their Cruises, Stop Going To Church, And Take Coronavirus Seriously”… VOGUE: “Why Are So Many Baby Boomers in Denial Over the Coronavirus?”… BUZZFEED NEWS: “How Millennials Are Talking To Their Boomer Relatives About The Coronavirus”
Although I’m a little too young to be considered a Boomer, I am over 50, and I’d be glad to explain why the over-50 demographic is not panicking in the fashion that our young, know-it-all journalists would like. It’s simple. We’ve been through a lifetime of media-hyped hysterias and apocalyptic predictions. If not complete hoaxes, they were falsely reported or over-hyped. Here are a few:
Overpopulation and Global Famine: This was promised not just globally, but domestically too. We were supposed to have run out of food and descended into global starvation a long time ago. All the experts agreed.
Day Care Center Child Molestations: This hysteria sent many innocent people to jail. Local and national media fanned the flames with accounts of “numbers growing daily” and videos of anguished parents. It was a fraud perpetrated by highly credentialed “experts” who believed that pretty much every child exposed to an adult had been molested. The children just needed help remembering it. Those of us who saw through the hysteria were muzzled, because to question the veracity of the hysteria invited accusations that you too were a child molester. It was like Salem in 1693. The bravest journalist I’ve ever read is the WSJ’s Dorothy Rabinowitz, for daring to unravel the terror and how it spread.
Killer Bees: We treat it as a joke now, but we were promised an invasion of swarming “Africanized” bees that would kill livestock and children. It was soon going to be unsafe to even go outside in the southern US without thick layers of protective clothing. All the experts agreed.
Killer Mold: Toxic mold in the ‘90s was kind of like radioactive waste, only deadlier. Or at least that’s what the media had us believing. The terror of discovering mold in schools was met with media alerts, school shutdowns, and local TV stations filming panicked parents as they picked up their crying children, just moments before the tikes were engulfed by the attacking mold.
Global Cooling: A “consensus of scientists” assured me this was real, and that its impact on agriculture would probably lead to my death by starvation.
Global Warming: According to “scientific” predictions from yet another “consensus of scientists,” the Arctic should now be ice free, snowfalls a thing of the past, and New York’s West Side Highway under water.
It goes on and on. Acid Rain. Peak Oil. Ozone. Alar Apples. Y2K.
Maybe the Wuhan Virus is finally “The Big One.” But after decades of the media fraudulently screaming “APOCALYPSE IS IMMINENT!!!” it is not irrational for Boomers to dismiss the latest hysteria.
The result of a lifetime of Media Overload.
If you took all the worthless media words from the last 50 years and put them edge to edge both ways you could plaster Australia 100 feet deep and it you took all the redeemable words from the media in that same time period they would fill a walmart shopping bag halfway.
So much yappin’ and writin’ with so little usable value.
Such a waste of human effort.
Information age my goat smellin’ ass.
Lying and all of it’s nasty cousins is NOT information.
It is evidence.
Off with their nutz!
HMarch 21, 2020, 5:18 AM
Oh yeah. Growing up, I “survived” drinking from the garden hose, riding in cars not equipped with seat belts, polio epidemics, bicycling without a helmet, Daddy’s unsecured firearms and ammunition, non-fluoridated tap water, no internet, three-channel television, fanny paddles, deprivation of Grey Poupon Mustard, the Cuban Missile Crisis, no air conditioning in the house or cars in South Texas, the “time it never rained” and being way too close to a boxcar full of rocket fuel oxidizer that went kaboom in a most convincing fashion. Not to mention, manual transmissions and my formative years polished off by an excursion to Viet Nam in my late teens. Many of you here crossed off most or all of the same boxes, and many other items as well, and you don’t hear us complaining about it. So I am not terribly impressed by these Slackers of the Apocalypse with their hair set a-fire at the least contrived outrage, slaves to their electronic devices, woke and confused about their gender and/or which bathroom to infest, tattooed on every surface, pierced at every orifice and proudly ignorant of how we came to be Americans, presuming to lecture me from their throngs on the beach whilst on spring break. Mother always said that children should be seen, and not heard, and she was never more right than now.
When I was in grade school (’59-’63) we had H-Bomb drills. The alarm went off, and we were lined up and paraded down the halls, and into the tunnels that were built beneath the school when the building was constructed in 1957-58. Once we were down there we were lined up against the walls, and ordered to sit on the concrete floor. They shut off the lights, and we had to stay silent for about fifteen minutes in the dark while the air became stifling, and damn near unbreatheable. We had CONELRAD (sp?) civil defense spots on television, H- bomb preparedness, Bomb shelters, and an air raid siren every Saturday at noon.
Que up the remainder of the list just posted.
JWM
jdMarch 21, 2020, 5:53 AM
Dorothy Rabonowicz also tried to help Father Gordon MacRae
who is falsely imprisoned in NH. He had no post at all this past
Wednesday which is a first in all the years I’ve been reading him.
Please say a prayer for him.
jwm, my school didn’t have underground tunnels. We had to kneel under our desks, put our heads down, and then put our hands over our heads. They never had us do the “kiss your ass good-bye” portion of the exercise. Of course, I’m not sure how many of us in 1961 – 1966 would have been limber enough to make that move.
& if rye whiskey don’t kill me I’ll live till I die.
HA ReynoldsMarch 21, 2020, 12:32 PM
You forgot a couple:
(A) The Limits to Growth (“The Club of Rome”.)
I was in one of them Ivy League Engineering schools in early ’70s, and we were “hosting” the Meadows (Dennis & Donella), the idiots behind this simplistic scam. One engineering professor, who had swallowed their BS hook, line & sinker (he still had the leader sticking out of his mouth) said: “The world will be out of CHROMIUM by the year 2010!”
I raised my hand. “Perfessor, how is this POSSIBLE in a free market? If chromium gets too expensive, we will use substitute materials. If it gets REALLY expensive, I’m quitting school and hiring young ladies of my acquaintance to suck chrome off of bumper hitches.”
(B) RADON!!!!
Every basement in New England was trapping RADON (a radioactive gas from the underlying igneous rocks, e.g. granite) and exposing the people upstairs. Aberdeen, Scotland, which has actual GRANITE HOUSES, was gonna be a ghost town. Never mind that folks had lived long lives in these houses for a couple of centuries; we were ALL gonna die from Lung Cancer by age 29.
RE: CONELRAD Drills
I was in Kindergarten in 1958. We had one of those CONELRAD drills. They paraded us outside and down a long concrete ramp to the basement. On the way, a B-58 Hustler (probably took off from nearby Hanscom Field) flew DIRECTLY over the school at what felt like tree-top level (they were designed to do that). In one of those vivid, indelible memories from childhood (see Proust: Recherche du Temps Perdu) I remember looking straight up, and being able to clearly make-out the markings on the underbelly of the B-58. The noise, of course, was awesome for a Kindergarten boy.
HAR
ghostsniperMarch 21, 2020, 6:03 PM
“The noise, of course, was awesome for a Kindergarten boy.”
=====
Guess I never grew up cause I still get off on that stuff.
3 C130’s went overhead at treetop a couple weeks ago and it looked like the last one I saw at Fort Campbell 40 years ago cept I wasn’t upside down. The B58 was my first favorite jet and still ranks pretty high. Them delta wingz…..lordy….
TCMarch 21, 2020, 8:26 PM
Remember “radon”? how it was all gonna kill us?
ghostsniperMarch 22, 2020, 4:56 AM
“Remember “radon”? how it was all gonna kill us?”
=========
In the world of architecture, and clients wallets, radon is still a thing that must be dealt with.
Once they make a new rule (building codes) it never goes away.
leeMarch 22, 2020, 4:58 PM
You forgot to mention the biggest media blitz during the past 30 years–homosexuality is a genetic condition. Even after the American Psychological group started to back away the media continues.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Buck Throckmorton at Ace rants on Apocalypse Fatigue: BUSINESS INSIDER: “Frustrated Millenials Say They Can’t Get Their Aging Parents to Cancel Their Cruises, Stop Going To Church, And Take Coronavirus Seriously”… VOGUE: “Why Are So Many Baby Boomers in Denial Over the Coronavirus?”… BUZZFEED NEWS: “How Millennials Are Talking To Their Boomer Relatives About The Coronavirus”
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
The result of a lifetime of Media Overload.
If you took all the worthless media words from the last 50 years and put them edge to edge both ways you could plaster Australia 100 feet deep and it you took all the redeemable words from the media in that same time period they would fill a walmart shopping bag halfway.
So much yappin’ and writin’ with so little usable value.
Such a waste of human effort.
Information age my goat smellin’ ass.
Lying and all of it’s nasty cousins is NOT information.
It is evidence.
Off with their nutz!
Oh yeah. Growing up, I “survived” drinking from the garden hose, riding in cars not equipped with seat belts, polio epidemics, bicycling without a helmet, Daddy’s unsecured firearms and ammunition, non-fluoridated tap water, no internet, three-channel television, fanny paddles, deprivation of Grey Poupon Mustard, the Cuban Missile Crisis, no air conditioning in the house or cars in South Texas, the “time it never rained” and being way too close to a boxcar full of rocket fuel oxidizer that went kaboom in a most convincing fashion. Not to mention, manual transmissions and my formative years polished off by an excursion to Viet Nam in my late teens. Many of you here crossed off most or all of the same boxes, and many other items as well, and you don’t hear us complaining about it. So I am not terribly impressed by these Slackers of the Apocalypse with their hair set a-fire at the least contrived outrage, slaves to their electronic devices, woke and confused about their gender and/or which bathroom to infest, tattooed on every surface, pierced at every orifice and proudly ignorant of how we came to be Americans, presuming to lecture me from their throngs on the beach whilst on spring break. Mother always said that children should be seen, and not heard, and she was never more right than now.
When I was in grade school (’59-’63) we had H-Bomb drills. The alarm went off, and we were lined up and paraded down the halls, and into the tunnels that were built beneath the school when the building was constructed in 1957-58. Once we were down there we were lined up against the walls, and ordered to sit on the concrete floor. They shut off the lights, and we had to stay silent for about fifteen minutes in the dark while the air became stifling, and damn near unbreatheable. We had CONELRAD (sp?) civil defense spots on television, H- bomb preparedness, Bomb shelters, and an air raid siren every Saturday at noon.
Que up the remainder of the list just posted.
JWM
Dorothy Rabonowicz also tried to help Father Gordon MacRae
who is falsely imprisoned in NH. He had no post at all this past
Wednesday which is a first in all the years I’ve been reading him.
Please say a prayer for him.
One Addition:
Recovered Memory Syndrome.
Sent a lot of innocent men to prison. broke up families, and destroyed lives.
Killer Bees: Africanized???? That’s RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST!!!!!111111!!!!!!!!!!
jwm, my school didn’t have underground tunnels. We had to kneel under our desks, put our heads down, and then put our hands over our heads. They never had us do the “kiss your ass good-bye” portion of the exercise. Of course, I’m not sure how many of us in 1961 – 1966 would have been limber enough to make that move.
& if rye whiskey don’t kill me I’ll live till I die.
You forgot a couple:
(A) The Limits to Growth (“The Club of Rome”.)
I was in one of them Ivy League Engineering schools in early ’70s, and we were “hosting” the Meadows (Dennis & Donella), the idiots behind this simplistic scam. One engineering professor, who had swallowed their BS hook, line & sinker (he still had the leader sticking out of his mouth) said: “The world will be out of CHROMIUM by the year 2010!”
I raised my hand. “Perfessor, how is this POSSIBLE in a free market? If chromium gets too expensive, we will use substitute materials. If it gets REALLY expensive, I’m quitting school and hiring young ladies of my acquaintance to suck chrome off of bumper hitches.”
(B) RADON!!!!
Every basement in New England was trapping RADON (a radioactive gas from the underlying igneous rocks, e.g. granite) and exposing the people upstairs. Aberdeen, Scotland, which has actual GRANITE HOUSES, was gonna be a ghost town. Never mind that folks had lived long lives in these houses for a couple of centuries; we were ALL gonna die from Lung Cancer by age 29.
RE: CONELRAD Drills
I was in Kindergarten in 1958. We had one of those CONELRAD drills. They paraded us outside and down a long concrete ramp to the basement. On the way, a B-58 Hustler (probably took off from nearby Hanscom Field) flew DIRECTLY over the school at what felt like tree-top level (they were designed to do that). In one of those vivid, indelible memories from childhood (see Proust: Recherche du Temps Perdu) I remember looking straight up, and being able to clearly make-out the markings on the underbelly of the B-58. The noise, of course, was awesome for a Kindergarten boy.
HAR
“The noise, of course, was awesome for a Kindergarten boy.”
=====
Guess I never grew up cause I still get off on that stuff.
3 C130’s went overhead at treetop a couple weeks ago and it looked like the last one I saw at Fort Campbell 40 years ago cept I wasn’t upside down. The B58 was my first favorite jet and still ranks pretty high. Them delta wingz…..lordy….
Remember “radon”? how it was all gonna kill us?
“Remember “radon”? how it was all gonna kill us?”
=========
In the world of architecture, and clients wallets, radon is still a thing that must be dealt with.
Once they make a new rule (building codes) it never goes away.
You forgot to mention the biggest media blitz during the past 30 years–homosexuality is a genetic condition. Even after the American Psychological group started to back away the media continues.