Very probably I'm older than most regulars in this forum

I've books from the 60s and 70s that I bought then. And all the way through, people have been milking an 'end times' scenario

Seen them come and go. I can remember decades ago, reading about the Mayan prophecy and back then, with 30 or more years left to run, it was just there on the back burner

About a decade ago, it exploded, but there were still ten or more years left to run and in those years, people made their life's fortune from creating alarm and in others, hope

Yes, hope. Many in this forum are aged 20 or younger I suppose. And for half their lives or more, they've contemplated the doomsday scenario. For many, raised on the garbage of 'You can be whatever you want to be if you believe in it strongly enough', life has proved a disappointment. They realised they had damn all chance of becoming 'rich and famous' and they became angry (because 'anger' is actually disappointed 'hope') and would prefer to die rather than live what they consider an 'ordinary life'

Others would rather be dead than forced to accept their lives will be roughly the same as their parents' lives (i.e., marriage, kids, mortgage, 'ordinary' or no job, etc.)

Many were hoping someone would take on responsibility for their lives. They wanted a doomsday exit instead of an 'ordinary' life. They thought they'd be part of a massive event, culminating in some sort of off-world continuation consisting of everything they'd ever 'dreamed' of

Many of these people made no provision for the rest of their lives. They had no savings. Many have no work or source of income. Many recognise they're pretty ordinary and unless a doomsday scenario saves them from mediocrity, they're going to age, go bald, sag, lose interest in sex and end up old, broke and living on nothing in a damp room somewhere. So they are desperate to be rescued from their own lives. And many of these people believe the saviours will be 'extraterrestrial aliens' --- like intergalactic Santa Clauses who'll take them on endless 'Star Trek' type adventures

All this has been going on since I was a teenager. Back in the 60s and 70s, 2012 seemed so far away, lol. Then it grew closer and closer and today's young people must have actually believed it

But it was a money-spinner, that's all. In the South of France and maybe in Florida, living in very nice apartments and estates thank you very much, are 'esteemed doomsday authors' who made their very comfortable living selling this crap to the hopeful and hopeless

Well, it's done. 2012 has been and gone, as has the 2000 millenium hype. Now it's back to business, time to make up for all that lost time. Careers to be forged now. Educations to catch up on. That lost time has to be clawed back somehow for all those who hoped they'd never have to plan and live their own lives

But, the doomsday profiteers have a whole NEW audience to work with and several NEW fortunes to make. So they're not going to concede they're flogging a dead horse. Instead, they'll continue that long tradition of selling snake oil to the gullible. And there are entirely NEW audiences out there desperate to be 'saved' from their own lives

Don't be fools. Whomever put you here has a vested interest in your living out your days with as much misery involved as can be injected into it. And they're not going to allow you any shortcuts. You have to live it, suffer it with just enough pleasure to keep you going, and then you die, usually miserable and suffering to the end

So quit the 'easy exit' train and accept you won't be part of any dramatic world's end scenarios. Instead, like all those who came and died before you, you'll just have to get through a world that's not going anywhere for your sake and yes, you'll probably remain at least as ordinary as your ancestors, if not more so

Don't pay the snake oil merchants, don't fall for it. Instead, accept ownership of your life and get on with it