Societal Alzheimers

Does anyone remember the wide-spread pseudo-panic that swept the country this time last year? The vehemence with which we all mercifully chattered about the inevitability of our fates? I do. And I find it quite odd that staring at the same date that two years ago would spin our country into a societal meltdown brings only a smile to our faces. Allow me to elaborate, as the Mayan Calendar supposedly predicts, the world and all of its wrongdoings will meet a swift and violent end come December 21st 2012. When this theory came began to become publicized by the media the peoples interest morphed into gut wrenching fear. Maybe this theory no longer fell under the category of a simple conspiracy? The thought crossed my mind more than once, and rightfully so. Within days of comprehending the apparent severity of the situation I along with millions of others contributed to "December 21st apocalypse" as the most searched term on google for 2010. As I scoured scores of websites I came across methods of our demise ranging from planetary collision to zombie infections. What crushed my dismal hope of survival further came with the release of John Cusack and all his glory in the cinematic flub of the century 2012. This film lit the fuse, turning an already impressionable mentality into a cacophony of despair. Millions searching for this event turned into hundreds of millions, including myself and it got to the point of absurdity that NASA began releasing articles disproving the theory in order to calm the public. However, their release only calmed the those skeptical of it in the first place and for the most part, those plagued with concern found no solace. With all of the internal chaos swarming around for the weeks after the film I can still remember my little cousin coming to me teary eyed asking about the verity of his certain end. At that point a realization struck me that only have us as a people created this mad theory to the point of ludicrousy. As I sat there explaining the scientific and archaeological evidence in as best a way a nine year old could comprehend I found myself feeling more relaxed than him, even though he simply smiled and went to finish his hot wheels track. With my explanation of the impracticality of such a stellar end I found myself feeling elated, on a higher tier of thought than everyone else still frantically searching for reassurance. However, this great catastrophe of panic and outrage fizzled as quickly as it detonated, exemplifying an overdone theme in life: time, does in fact heal everything. Within weeks conversations never even contained a hint of the subject, as a matter of fact, when I brought it up to see what reaction I would net, all I got was an indifferent shrug. To this day this mystifies me. How could those who seemed so ignorantly humble in the face of the “ apocalypse” now hold less interest and fear than I? Well, maybe the answer lies in the overdone theme of time healing all wounds, or quite frankly, the lack thereof, honestly, all this shows: society gets bored. Yes, this profound absence of emotion over an event so turbulent that it prompted thoughts of suicide among pockets of our population all boils down to societies innocent boredom, the passing of a trend. Quickly our minds rerouted themselves from fiery death to Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez kissing at the beach, which I suppose acts for the better. Society seems to function much better when they sit panting over their computers fretting over the ending to Gossip Girl rather than purchasing the deeds to underground bunkers to ride out a solar flare, hurricane, earthquake, tsunami storm. Thus, the beauty of our society resides in our ability to move on when necessary, and never look back, thankfully. Because if we did not possess this ability then our town of Chagrin Falls would most likely find itself in a frenzied destruction over our judgement day this Friday, which on the bright side would mean no school. I mean, if we had a hurricane day already who says a pre-apocalypse day seems like too much to ask?