The world then to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.

That was originally attributed to Mother Shipton, who may herself be a myth, but Charles Hindley later admitted to creating the lines himself, and adding them to the reprints he did of Mother Shipton’s prophecies.

In the 20th century, the “prophecy” resurfaced and was once again attributed to Mother Shipton:

The world then to an end shall come
In nineteen hundred and ninety-one.

Well, we survived.

Back in the year 999 A.D., many people feared the end of the world then too. They thought the then-current Pope was the anti-Christ and that the end of days would soon be at hand.

Didn’t happen.

Of course, we all remember 1999, when so many people were concerned about Y2K and massive computer failures that would plunge the world back to the middle ages. Or, at least back to the mid-century. We survived that too.

Seems every time there is some bad news, people start worrying about the end of the world. We’re all going to die! Even when there isn’t much bad news, people start worrying then too. Good things don’t last forever. We just blissfully ignoring our own imminent demise.

At any rate, maybe you’ll feel better after reading these 10 predictions of the apocalypse that didn’t happen.

Of course, if you still want to party like it’s 1999, just remember that when the world doesn’t end, you’re gonna be stuck paying the bills…

After work Monday, I heard a helicopter. Nothing out of the ordinary really. But, then it circled around a second time, at which point I noticed it was one of those infamous unmarked black helicopters of conspiracy theory fame. I got my camera, and hoped for a third pass, but it just kept on going this time. Thus, the fuzzy picture which you can’t even tell is a helicopter. I suppose I could have just as easily passed it off as a UFO. But, it was a helicopter.

As you may recall, black helicopters rose to infamy in the 1990s when it was supposed they were part of the United Nations invasion force that was going to take over the United States. Of course, that hasn’t happened. And, given the UN’s frequent bungling of, well, near everything, I don’t think we’ll be seeing that day anytime soon.

More likely is that either the markings were on the other side or I just missed them. Still, though, it is kind of interesting to see a conspiracy theory come to life, as it were. And, they didn’t turn around and shoot me, which one would think people involved in some evil conspiracy would be prone to do.

On the other hand, this is just the sort of thing that keeps the conspiracy theories going. People see a UFO and have only fuzzy photos (if any) to show for it, and it’s easy to dismiss it as something more mundane. They offer varying descriptions: cigar-shaped, flying saucer, etc. All those are easy for a skeptic to dismiss. But, it’s harder to convince someone that they didn’t see a helicopter. And, it’s harder to convince yourself that they didn’t see a helicopter. After all, we know helicopters exist.

Once you have something that’s grounded in reality (like a helicopter), it’s easy to attach conspiracy theories to it. I think that’s at least part of the explanation for the popularity of many conspiracy theories. They are a mixture of the real and the believable and, so even if you throw in something unbelievable or unproven, they gain some credence by being attached to those real and believable things.

Helicopters are real. Someone seeing a black unmarked helicopter is believable. Thus, the United Nations planning to take over the United States with a fleet of black helicopters is not entirely impossible.

At that stage, you could toss in just about anything for the third point. The Bush Administration is using black helicopters to scout for weak points in our infrastructure in preparation for a dictatorial take-over before the next election. Hillary has a fleet of black helicopters and is using them to find homes with Obama signs, so they can be framed for some crime and imprisoned before the next primary. Or, the cable company is looking for homes with satellite TV so they can target those neighborhoods with cheaper pricing until they drive the satellite TV providers out of business.

Almost anything can be made to be believable. The best lies always have a grain of truth to them, and so do the best of conspiracy theories. Or, if not truth, at least a level of believability.