During the Christmas holidays I visited with some of my favorite relatives in another state. While there, I watched the movie Don’t Look Up. The movie was a doomsday type of story that satirized the public reception of pertinent news in the United States and the political response.
If you are interested, you can Google for more information about this movie. Such a search will let you know that the movie is rated R, not recommended at all for children. There is a lot of foul language, and nudity is prevalent at the end. From my standpoint, the movie was a parody of how American society operates at present.
The plot involved a graduate student finding out that a gigantic meteor (or asteroid) was going to collide with planet earth. The event was calculated to the exact date. The result would be the destruction of all animal (and possibly plant) life. She and her mentoring professor were alarmed and arranged to meet with the President of the United States to explain the situation in an attempt to have government resources accessed to prevent the collision.
It turns out the president was a woman who had been a former porn star. She was absurdly incompetent, as was her son. He was one of her top advisors, possibly White House Chief of Staff. He was as dim (or dimmer, if possible) than his mother. The prediction, based upon solid scientific fact, was made ridiculous by the media, in particular by means of a television talk show. The professor was “bought off”, convinced by an illicit relationship with a co-anchor of the talk show to also ignore the severity of the pending disaster. There were plans instituted for corporations to profit from the prediction, and the catch phrase “Don’t Look Up” became a mantra for the masses. The student who discovered the meteor/asteroid was publicly humiliated and scorned, but she never wavered that the crisis was real and death was imminent. She did, however, engage in a relationship with a character who, though initially portrayed as a “punk”, emerged as the only religious person portrayed in the movie.
There was a semi-serious effort undertaken to deflect the meteor/asteroid by means of a rocket/missile. It was made into a media extravaganza, and even the failure of the mission was not a cause of great alarm. As the catastrophic event drew nearer, the professor “came to himself” and joined his student in trying to convince the public to prepare for the impending doom. Unfortunately, this effort was too late. As public concern mounted, the government announced a “Plan B”—in the end, there was no “Plan B”, though a special means of escape via spaceship for top government officials frozen in cryogenic phase was provided. The only government official who did not escape was the president’s son—in her haste to escape, she forgot all about him until it was too late. He remained alone as the only survivor after the meteor/asteroid struck Earth.
Hundreds of years into the future, the completely nude government officials emerged from the spaceship onto Earth’s surface. The president wanders over to admire a “cute” creature, only to be brutally eaten by it as had been prophesied to her before the collision.
This movie is a far cry from Chicken Little’s falling sky. Much tamer also was Season 4, Episode 8 (the 119th episode, “The End of You-Know-What”) of My Three Sons, originally aired November 7, 1963. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_My_Three_Sons_episodes) In this episode, Chip and Ernie eavesdrop and overhear their learned astronomer neighbor and another gentleman talking about calculations proving the world would end on Friday of that week. (The cause was similar to that of the movie discussed above.) The boys decide to keep the information secret so there won’t be a panic. Had the boys lingered a little longer, they would have learned that the astronomer placed a decimal in the wrong place—the world would actually end at least a million years later. Chip and Ernie go about, not in morbid fear, but tending to practical matters such as what to do with the money in their piggybanks as they won’t need it after Friday.
This reminded me of past reports in which some religious fanatic predicted the end of the world on a particular date. All the followers in the cult sold everything they owned and met at a certain location to await the end. I’ve always wondered what those misinformed people planned to do with their funds after the world ends. Did they think they had to buy admission into the hereafter?
The Scriptures tell of the ending of this world, but also state: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matthew 24: 35-36, KJV) Even though no one knows the exact time the world will end, no one will live on earth forever:
“. . . it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment . . .” (Hebrews 9:27 KJV) Amazingly, no one knows the exact date and time of his/her own death. Personally, I am glad I don’t know, for I would spend the rest of my life marking the calendar and counting the hours.
It is for these reasons, Dear Reader, that we should follow such contemporary advice as “live as if today were your last”. It very well could be.
I leave you with thoughts from my email archives.
Those who are too smart to engage in politics
are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
--Plato, ancient Greek Philosopher
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President;
I'm beginning to believe it.
Quoted in 'Clarence Darrow for the Defense' by Irving Stone.

Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Government.
But then I repeat myself.
Mark Twain (1835- 1910)

"I have performed for 12 presidents but entertained only six."
Bob Hope on Presidents

"I have done benefits for ALL religions.
I would hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality."
Bob Hope on Religion