It is not just now. People have always been obsessed, at different times, that they were living in the end times.
In my New Testament class we talked alot about apocalyptic Jewish sects right existing right around the time of Jesus's ministry. There is some speculation from the letters that Paul wrote (which compose of alot of the New Testament) that he very much thought that the parousia (the "day of the Lord") was in the immediate future. Like he would be alive to see it.
I think that every age likes to see themselves as the sum of all human achievement, the final thought. The most encompassing idea, thus the world is ready to end.
As far as the media focusing on those ideas; you could easily point at media's focus of love or of horror or of lots of other things. Media does the best to pull at the emotions of people, to provide something other than just a bunch of images flashing on the screen.
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Date: 2002-10-30 03:47 pm (UTC)In my New Testament class we talked alot about apocalyptic Jewish sects right existing right around the time of Jesus's ministry. There is some speculation from the letters that Paul wrote (which compose of alot of the New Testament) that he very much thought that the parousia (the "day of the Lord") was in the immediate future. Like he would be alive to see it.
I think that every age likes to see themselves as the sum of all human achievement, the final thought. The most encompassing idea, thus the world is ready to end.
As far as the media focusing on those ideas; you could easily point at media's focus of love or of horror or of lots of other things. Media does the best to pull at the emotions of people, to provide something other than just a bunch of images flashing on the screen.