its the end of the world as we know it

i wonder what people think of the end of the world, why they fear it, why they prepare for it... there is a christian sect in a wasteland in russia that has holed itself up in a cave until the end of the world. they predict the end of the world will come in may. personally, i would wait until the end of april to be roughing it in a cave... but thats just me. i mean: a wasteland in russia in winter is bad enough ~ couldnt you just stay home? its probably not too different from the cave... maybe there are curtains but seriously, cold and hopeless is cold and hopeless. the group consists of 29 adults and 4 children. they say the church has gone wrong (im not disagreeing with them but seriously, how sensible can they be? winter in russia in a cave?...) and they threaten to blow themselves up if anyone tries to extricate them. so they would be cheating doomsday by a few months... how different would that be from what they are expecting the end of the world to be? what i dont understand is this: why are they in the cave anyway? wont the end of the world find them anywhere they are? i asked a christian friend and he said that that doesnt make sense, god can find you anywhere. i said theyre christians they dont have to make sense. i imagine they have a bosch idea of the end of the world ~ christians tend to be fanatics and over-dramatize things. hieronymous bosch painted fantastic doomsday scenes depicting the hallucinations of one of the drug-induced, psychedelic chapters of that book they worship. they are fantastic. just fantastic. (FANTASY!) about the destruction of civilization and the cruel judgement of people. maybe this christian cult thinks it will avoid the armageddon if they are not living in civilization at the end of days (what civilization is there in that wasteland anyway? do they get touring exhibits from the museum of modern art? is there a wolfgang puck restaurant?) there are many stories in the folklore of the world about the end of times, most of them are based in fear. hellfire and brimstone, judgement... as a people, we must inherently feel we are bad bad creatures. no matter which side of the fire you think you will go, we must all feel inherently bad to ascribe to such stories of judgement. i prefer to think that no matter how pathetic it is, we are all doing the best we can. and at the end of times, brahma will just close his eyes and that will be it.

for reasonable prdictions: http://blesstheworld.com