It's official. We've a quarter way through the century. There certainly has been a lot of crazy things going on. Natural disasters and new diseases are getting more and more destructive. Terrorist and AI attacks are more and more common. Layoffs, homelessness and petty criminality are at an all-time high. It almost feels like it's the end of the world, doesn't it? A lot of people have wondered how and when the extinction of humanity will happen. But there seems to be one way that I think the world can come to an end. In fact, it seems to be happening right under our noses, right now, to everyone and everything in existence.



You see, we live in an age that's devoid of humility or empathy. How often were you subject to mean comments? Or how often someone try to bash you for your political stance? And even if your views did align, do you still get treated like garbage? Well, so many people live this reality, and even worse, the people who exploit them will do anything to keep them locked in victimhood. Even after these people die, (which is probably what these sickos want anyway) they show that they have no remorse for their actions.



So how does this exploitation work? Well, pick any crisis you can think of; pandemics, mass shootings or bombings, natural disasters, you get the idea. All these things are terrible to think about, especially since something like natural disasters are something that no mortal being can control. But then you get to the recovery periods, which can be their own can of worms. Some of these events have charities that have you pay money for the surviving and suffering victims. Sounds noble, right? Well, yes and no. Sometimes, charities can be anything but charitable.



If you're familiar with the mid-2000's, you may have heard about Hurricane Katrina. While there were more subtle talks about climate change, this was the one incident that brought it into the mainstream. I speak from experience, as I survived one the tropical storms that hurricanes produce once they land. While many of these charities were indeed helpful, others weren't. Some of them would use tactics like offering a weak lean-to that looks like it's going to break; other just put them out of their misery. It's almost as if these people have the power to save these people and help them prepare for better lives, but ultimately choose not to.



But mere aversion can be considered exploitation as well. Let's take a topic like the Covid pandemic. I think we can all agree that being locked in our houses for months on end was a terrible idea. And there were other practices that were questionable at best, such as questioning its origin or everyone forced to wear masks as though they were sick. However, even after the vaccine was finally invented, there's still some debate raging on as to whether it can change or whether it's even relevant again. But whatever the answer, one thing is certain. We are too divided on whether or not the coronavirus is as deadly as what it truly is. So much so that we have to stay away from people as much as possible when they do contract it, regardless if they're susceptible to die from it or not. If you're going to deny help from someone who desperately needs it, you're stepping on their grave before they have even been dug.



However, I don't think this journal would be complete without the unfortunate assassination of two political figures. I think you know who they are, but to keep it brief, one was pro-guns and the other was anti-guns. And they both got harassed for it. Most of it was something to the effect of "Serves you right." Even Jimmy Kimmel, you know, the one that popularized those mean tweets and played a basketball player with questionable makeup, got fired for his harassment. Actually, not really; he got re-hired because ABC didn't really question Kimmel for any of his actions, even though they should.



So if you're wondering how the world would end in the next few years, I don't think it's going to be through traditional claims. All those endtime scenarios, wars, disease, climate change, even AI; all these things are actually by-products of the real, more disturbing truth. And that truth is that somewhere in the 21st century we started to treat human life (and by extent, the world we live on) in a more secular light than ever before. Think about what happens when you watch a horror movie. You'd think that a horror movie is supposed to invoke, well... horror. What do you expect when you go inside a haunted house at an amusement park? However, the vast majority of horror films are made on very shoestring budgets, and even worse, sometimes, it's not spent on anything. That's the reason why most of them keep resorting to clichés that feel fake. As for the scenes where someone meets their fate, we're supposed to feel shock and sympathy for the victim. Instead, because the acting is so unconvincing and the characters have little to no dimension, they can come across as laughable and as though they had it coming.



Sadly, this is the same way we treat human life. Sometimes, some bad things that happen in your life just cannot be reversed, even if you do build resilience. But, sometimes, there are those people that don't want those wounds to heal. While some people believe that crises can be used as a tool to build stronger backbones, others just use them as a means to control people for their own selfish ends. As such, their means just exacerbate the situation by making people docile and dehumanized. In short, they turn the people they manipulate into victims, which in turn, leads to them more and more reduced until there's nothing left, and then when they do kick the bucket, it just become more fuel for them. The hell you created on earth would be, in some ways, worse than any seen in any religion.



Which brings me to another aspect, the idea that hell is made of good intentions, or to be more precise, those intentions are only pretending to be good. You see, Noah didn't build an ark because it was going to rain for a month and a half. He built because humanity was just that cruel and the only way to save themselves was to start afresh. A lot of religious works make it perfectly clear that the end of days won't just happen on a certain day on a certain year or even become mere happenstance. If anything, it'll happen because we brought it upon ourselves. Any and all secularism and nihilism isn't just directed at deities, it's also directed towards ourselves. People resent their families and friends, become boastful about petty achievements, scam people out their money or murder them with no remorse or repentance. That sort of thing. Even worse, though, they avoid any and all karma, even when all evidence points to them. On the other hand, most of it isn't so much born out of malice as it is born out of short-term face-value thinking, but they could still be thinking of themselves or something that can only be achieved in the end. On top of that, they're teaching other people to think the same way. As a result, there tends to be a lot of mean streaks and vigilantism just to prove that they're in the right. It's this short-term end-goal thinking mixed in with a lack of humility and empathy that's going to doom us all one day because if you're more than happy to step on other people's graves for your selfish wants, don't be too surprised when death comes knocking at your door.



So, this is the way that I think the world would end. Again, we often envision many different ways our world would one day become inhabitable for human life. But ultimately, the one thing that'll end us all is that somewhere along the way, we stopped caring and let everyone know it. If we want human life to have a future, we need to treat as though it has a future, which as far as I'm concerned, hope it does. It's tragic when things that were considered good are no longer being given any sort of reverence, while things like violence, corporate and financial greed, hatred and spite, and general criminal behavior go unpunished and rarely see any form of justice. But what's even worse is that death has become a target of exploitation, showing that human life isn't being treated with reverence anymore. So if you think that a nuclear war is going to doom us all, just imagine how bad things can be when the people who are left get scammed just to get a cure for radioactivity that'll most likely never be developed.



On the other hand, I do want to end this on a more positive note, even though this isn't really a positive topic. In fact, death in and of itself is a frightening and sad thing to talk about. The phrase Memento mori (Remember that you will die) may not be the happiest thing you'll hear, but it also serves as a reminder that you should make something of your life. No one knows how long you shall live, nor whether or not there is an afterlife. But on the offchance that there is, it never helps to seek meaning in your life, rather than insult people because it makes seem more important than you really are. Sometimes, the only way your life can have meaning is to give it meaning, and save your death for when it finally happens rather than end it all because it's just too much. If anything, it'll allow those who are against you to further their agenda. So aim for whatever gives meaning to your life. It may make all the difference. Remember that life isn't about what your paying job is or whether or not you have done something that could be seen as terrible in hindsight. It's about the choices that you make and what happens as a result of them.