Apocalypse Loosens Purse Strings

I’m starting to think that all of these apocalyptic  (and largely fake) articles about drug-resistant bacteria, swine flu, killer bees, etc are a marketing device. People who think the end is near are more likely to make ill-considered purchases. If horror is inevitable, why not just go and buy XYZ while one still can enjoy it?

A constant low-grade anxiety is very conducive to unbridled shopping.

6 thoughts on “Apocalypse Loosens Purse Strings

  1. Killer bees are real, and even attacks that aren’t lethal can be very scary when they occurs.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3520926/One-man-hospitalized-20-stung-swarm-20-000-KILLER-BEES-attack-people-Arizona-mosque.html

    Nearby residents were told to stay in their homes. John Chavarria, one such local, told ABC 15 that he witnessed the attack from his house.
    ‘I don’t know, it was just crazy how everyone was running everywhere,’ he said.
    Miming swatting at bees around his head, he continued: ‘They were making some movements like that … some people would even fall in the grass over there and then they’d get up and start running.
    ‘I can’t believe they had the whole street blocked off for the bees.’

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  2. Drug-resistant bacteria are fascinating, and for a lot of people they’re deadly or a real pain, but they’re not at apocalyptic scales yet. Mostly we don’t really have a clear plan to deal with them just yet, since they’re a fairly recent occurrence within the last twenty years or so.

    As for swine flu–it was awful at the time. Nearly half the students at my high school contracted it at some point the year it hit, and almost a quarter of students were absent for about a week all at once. But I wouldn’t say it’s a huge deal now, at least in the US.

    The scariest thing I’ve found is spider rain: http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/may/18/australia-where-the-rain-is-sometimes-made-of-spiders-video-report

    Or something like this report: http://www.entsoc.org/PDF/2010/Orb-weaving-spiders.pdf

    The pictures in that last link are horrifying. When the apocalypse comes, it will come in the form of giant man-eating spiders. (Joking–though I’d be freaked out if it rained spiders where I am. Probably wouldn’t leave the house for a week :p)

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