I think “pessimistic” is the word you were looking for. To be narcissistic, they would have to be thinking that they would personally be ending the world.
“Every other civilization that’s fallen doesn’t count. Only my personal experience is real” is a narcissistic sentiment.
I wouldn’t even strictly call it pessimistic, as a lot of the “World is ending” attitude comes from people who have a sadistic desire to see others (particularly privileged elites) kicked out of their comfort zones. I would call it a kind of learned helplessness, as the implicit assumption of living through the End of the World is that we’re beyond the point at which you’re responsible for what comes next.
It’s still not narcissistic. Previous civilizations didn’t have the level of technology required to “end the world” in the literal sense. We do.
And if you go with the assumption that “end of the world” is figurative, why are you limiting it to one instance? I make it to “the end of the day” seven times a week.
Previous civilizations didn’t have the level of technology required to “end the world” in the literal sense.
Modern civilizations don’t have that level of technology. We can make earth inhospitable to a lot of humans and a lot of mammals. But we’re living through the 6th global extinction event, not the 1st. In a million years, modern humanity will be a distant memory one way or another and life will continue to thrive.
The worst case scenario of climate change is the inverse temperature variation of the last great Ice Age. This was an event that killed billions. But it was not an event that extinguished all life. Not even an event that extinguished all human life. And that’s at the end of the century - 2100 - a year none of us were going to see under the most ideal conditions.
It would be presumptuous to believe our grandchildren would live to see “the end of the world”. To insist its happening in the next 40-60 years? Come on.
I make it to “the end of the day” seven times a week.
That’d definitely a better way to understand history. We’ll all live to see the end of our own cycle of existence. Then we’ll pass the torch.
“The world will end in my lifetime” is one of the more narcissistic takes a human can express.
I think “pessimistic” is the word you were looking for. To be narcissistic, they would have to be thinking that they would personally be ending the world.
“Every other civilization that’s fallen doesn’t count. Only my personal experience is real” is a narcissistic sentiment.
I wouldn’t even strictly call it pessimistic, as a lot of the “World is ending” attitude comes from people who have a sadistic desire to see others (particularly privileged elites) kicked out of their comfort zones. I would call it a kind of learned helplessness, as the implicit assumption of living through the End of the World is that we’re beyond the point at which you’re responsible for what comes next.
It’s still not narcissistic. Previous civilizations didn’t have the level of technology required to “end the world” in the literal sense. We do.
And if you go with the assumption that “end of the world” is figurative, why are you limiting it to one instance? I make it to “the end of the day” seven times a week.
Modern civilizations don’t have that level of technology. We can make earth inhospitable to a lot of humans and a lot of mammals. But we’re living through the 6th global extinction event, not the 1st. In a million years, modern humanity will be a distant memory one way or another and life will continue to thrive.
The worst case scenario of climate change is the inverse temperature variation of the last great Ice Age. This was an event that killed billions. But it was not an event that extinguished all life. Not even an event that extinguished all human life. And that’s at the end of the century - 2100 - a year none of us were going to see under the most ideal conditions.
It would be presumptuous to believe our grandchildren would live to see “the end of the world”. To insist its happening in the next 40-60 years? Come on.
That’d definitely a better way to understand history. We’ll all live to see the end of our own cycle of existence. Then we’ll pass the torch.