I just like the name: Grímsvötn. Could it sound any more Viking? Does it not pull at your fiery Northman heart, scattering clouds of snow and knives of ice? Anyway, it started erupting today, close to the time predicted by Harold Camping for Iceland's share of Doomsday. I imagine if there were any Icelanders hooked on California evangelism living deep in the Vatnajökull icecap, they might have thought he was on to something.
I now know who Camping is. Until now I thought he was just another obscure millionaire wacko religionut, but I finally saw a picture and recognized him. He's been on TV for years. I actually enjoyed watching him once upon a time. Unlike his more theatric brethren, he sonorizes very reasonably, lacking in pretention, with a pleasantly rich voice that can be quite convincing if you ignore the words. Watching him was sort of relaxing.
Well, he's probably hunkered down tonight with the shocked glaze of the pridefallen, grunting vacantly in response to questions. Let's hope not, but under the stress his 89-year-old heart may even have raptured. Given up the holy ghost, as it were.
I predict he will admit to the errors and sins of pride, and retire. His followers will accept the embrace of fellow Christians and be brought away from that particular brink. Life will go on.
Boring prediction, I know. But I don't much enjoy entertainment that mocks people's deepest feelings. I'm weird and sensitive that way. I'm hella fun when I want to be, but not at unhappy people's expense.
As the earthquakes failed to roll by, I was outside in the pleasant spring evening, alternately drinking beer and wine and eating cheese and crackers and chips and salsa, celebrating a close friend's achievement in the company of her children and her husband's family. Thirty years ago a superset of this group showed me that Iranians truly know how to party, even with (or perhaps because of) relatives back home being imprisoned, or escaping Iran through rolled up carpets. Now I am touched to see three fine youths who are thoroughly American, speaking Farsi with their grandmother who's visiting from Tehran.
Would be the same if in Spanish or Russian or Chinese. Unlike my ancestors, most modern immigrants know better than to insist their children speak English only. These young Americans are more likely to engage meaningfully across the world; and since the only way something like an Apocalypse can happen is by humans failing to engage meaningfully, I'd say there's some cause for hope in that.
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9 comments:
I have no problem with people who mock this guy (Camping) mercilessly. His pleasantly rich, reasonable voice persuaded a whole bunch of gullible people into messing up their lives (quitting jobs, maxing out credit cards, etc.) to wait for this non-event. What does he care, at his age, with all that tax-free donatation money? I think he's an asshole and should be held accountable for fraud, and at the least should have his tax-exempt status yanked away.
"I predict he will admit to the errors and sins of pride, and retire. "
Didn't he predict this same event 15 or so years ago?
I predict he or one of his followers will come across new information to modify their calculations and come up with a new prediction and the cycle will begin again.
There are always people predicting the end of the world, and scooping in the goods to prepare. And always people willing to max out their shekel cards and give up their belongings to catch a ride on the magic carpet.
Always.
I don't feel sorry for Camping. I feel somewhat sorry for the people who messed up their lives because of the Campings of this universe, but, as Christine will recognize, I'll also have that practical streak saying, "Well, duh, doofus!"
My hope and prediction was basically that Camping would see the error of his ways, and his duped followers would find comfort elsewhere. That was in paragraph number four.
Y'all are angry and/or seeking sensationalism or something. I mean, I agree completely with what you say. But I was tired and in a charitable mood last night and wrote something I also agree with today.
have his tax-exempt status yanked away
If so, then so should all churches. This morning I'm feeling libertarianish and figure hell, let all those people do as they will, and the gullible can watch out for themselves. I'm sympathetic to the guy who spent $140,000 of his retirement money on posters and signs, but only in a tsk tsk good luck sort of way, not enough to get the law involved.
come up with a new prediction and the cycle will begin again
That is likely. He is a man and men are proud. My (unwritten) fantasy was that he would annonce his retirement and dedicate his millions towards recompense for everyone who can prove major expenses. Hope springs etc.
Eh? Not me! Angry or sensationalist, or whatever.
I know very little about the guy, nor his followers. I know he's wealthy -- more so now, in fact. I know his followers, well some were better off than they were. Given that, in my limited world, he's either a deliberate scheming crook or he's a shmuck who fails to grasp the real world ramifications of his words, his actions, his appeal, to those who are not as fortunate as he is.
I'm less charitable than you.
Eh, don't be so hard on yourself .
I don't think he's a crook, is all. He's been at his game way too long. He's a *former* engineer who got so caught up in his calculations, he was unable to check them in an appropriately wider context, i.e. in the real world.
Ah. Schmuck then. <g>
(don't forget to use the ampersand, "lt/gt", and a semi-colon when being a grinnin' fool.)
We're all schmucks in our own times and places. The schmuckery of those who end up in positions of influence and power sure makes life more ... challenging ... than does the schmuckery of fools like thee and me.
I do think that that religious organizations, especially ones that aggressively solicit money and accumulate property, should pay taxes like any other company. And I am angry at smooth talkers who prey on the weak-minded to part with money they can hardly afford, whether such weakness is due to emotional vulnerability or age-related dementia. It totally enrages me, in fact, but I guess that's all part of the wonderfulness of our "freedom," the freedom to be a complete fucking immoral asshole.
I just wonder if those two young healthy guys (early 20s, probably college students) sitting on the worn-out sofa in my dad's little mobile home that day ever feel a pang of conscience over hassling him into buying that completely useless "alarm" system he doesn't understand and never uses that grabs $42 out of his checking account every month under a contract he signed for life. Wonder how many other old confused people they scared into buying the same useless system?
(Yes, I was there, could not talk my stubborn father out of signing because those guys had convinced him he'd be burglarized imminently if he didn't buy this stupid thing.)
And I am angry at smooth talkers who prey on the weak-minded to part with money they can hardly afford, whether such weakness is due to emotional vulnerability or age-related dementia.
This.
I suppose you atheistic types can argue that all religion is a con, but of course I'm going to see a difference, and the difference I see is: intent. L. Ron Hubbard woke up one day and said, "Hey, you know what would make me a bunch of money? Starting a religion!" Then he wrote some fiction and sold it. If it's your view that the Bible is also fiction that's fine, but the difference between L. Ron Hubbard and Saint Peter is, L. Ron Hubbard knew it was fiction and wrote it with no other intention but to sell it. That right there is a con.
I don't know enough about this guy to say whether he falls on the Saint Peter side or the L. Ron Hubbard side, but I suspect the latter.
If it's your view that the Bible is also fiction that's fine
And BTW this should not be read as an indication that I don't agree with you on many counts. I'm not, like, Sara Palin. ;)
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