Bohoo, May 25th 2011 came, went and we’re still here. What a surprise. But if you happened to be on the Moon or in some subarctic ice field without access to media for those few weeks, let me quickly explain.
Harold Camping was an American radio broadcaster, head of California-based Family Radio. He’d been predicting Armageddon for quite a while, naming May 21, 1988 and September 7, 1994 as judgement days that – guess what – proved apocalypse-free. But a few years ago he really made it big, right to the media worldwide. Probably all the news stations had mentioned Camping’s Doomsday, if only as a joke. Even Google had May 21 2011 in top keywords for a good while. If you live in America, there’s good chance you’ve seen billboards and some such threatening you to repent while you still can, because the time is running short.
Guess what, May 21 came, went and nothing happened.
But millions of dollars had been spent for this ridiculous advertising campaign. Well, Camping didn’t pay for the billboards with his savings, did he? If you, dear reader, happen to belong to the crowd who dug out their credit cards and donated cash for Camping’s Big Act, do you feel like a fool now? If the answer is yes, then I believe your feeling is quite justified. There’s world hunger, cancer, homelessness etc, and there are people who give their cash to lunatics. The world didn’t get the Armageddon, but it deserves it for such tricks.
Anyway, what did Camping do after his prediction proved to be a complete and utter rubbish? Did he hide in some deep hole, disappearing from public attention forever? Of course not. He emerged again, with new Doomsday date, 21 October this time, same year.
Call me a heretic if you want, but somehow I wasn’t worried.
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