We Are On The Eve Of Destruction With Less Than 48 Hours To Go Til The World Ends

We are on the Eve of Destruction.

Scheduled to arrive in less than 48 hours, on Saturday, May 21.

The Apocalypse has been being proclaimed on billboards all over America, including one right by where I live.

People who ignorantly opine that the world is in horrible shape, that disaster will soon arrive, really annoy me.

I know one of those sorts who is always in Drama Queen mode about what God is supposedly doing to the world. The economy is going to ruins, horrible wars, Mother Nature rampaging.

This particular Drama Queen is totally ignorant about World War II and the Great Depression. Now, that was a time when the world was in bad shape. I remember her going into Drama Queen mode during one of the recent Israeli conflicts. She thought it was just awful. I asked if she'd heard of the Six Day War or the Yom Kippur War?

"The Yom what? she asked.

This morning I opined that I found it disturbing that American kids in the 12 years old range have never known an America that is not at war.

Then someone Anonymous made a comment regarding that subject that I found to be true...

Kids today don't know what it is to grow up in a time of war unless a parent is in the military. And that is not very many families or kids.

The baby boomers were the last generation to grow up during a time of war that they might have to participate in. Younger generations have no idea what it is like wondering if you might be drafted. Vietnam was in the back of every young guy's mind in the 1960s. Most figured they would just stay in school as long as possible, but the draft lottery changed that.

Today's kids don't give the war or the military a second thought or any thought. Neither did Gen-X or following generations. Yes I am repeating myself.

The Sixties.

Now that was a dynamic, turbulent, scary time. Assassinations. Riots. War Protests. Thousands of Young Americans Dying in the Vietnam War. Civil Rights Protests. Women's Liberation Movement. The Draft. The Cold War. Nuclear Attack Drills in School. Fallout Shelters. Inflation. Israel Attacked. The Hippie Movement. The Sexual Revolution. Environmental Disasters. Rivers on Fire. Moonwalks.

The decade of the 60's started with America led by Eisenhower and ended with his Vice-President, Richard Nixon, being President, with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in between.

The 60's were a time of protests. There was a lot to protest. A lot of what was being protested and being demanded to be changed has changed by 2011.

The America of 2011 is a much better place than the America of the 1960's. In the 1960's Martin Luther King had a dream. In 2011 America's President is Barack Obama. In the 60's women wanted to be liberated. In 2011, they are. In the 1960's America feared nuclear Armageddon caused by its fellow superpower, the Soviet Union. In 2011 America is the sole superpower, the Soviet Union is no longer communist. Russia is a democracy. With free speech. And billionaires.

In the 1960's had someone suggested that by the year 2011, the Soviet Union would be no more, would be a democracy, that America would build an International Space Station with the Russians, that Americans would return from space in Russian Soyuz's, that the Warsaw Pact would be no more, with members of the Eastern Bloc now members of NATO, with America basing military operations in former Soviet Republics, with the full cooperation of Russia, that America would win the Cold War, with actually, both sides victorious, without a nuclear war, well, I don't think in the 1960's anyone could have imagined a scenario where we'd be where we are at in the year 2011.

But it all came to pass. And yet I hear ignorant people verbalizing their opinion that we live in dire times.

This really annoys me.

The 60's were a time of protest songs. Like I already said, there was a lot to protest. For me, the best of the protest songs was "Eve of Destruction." This protest song was written by P.F. Sloan in 1965 and made into a hit that same year by Barry McGuire.

Read the lyrics to this famous song and you will see how much the world has changed for the better...

The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin.'

But you tell me over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say
Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today?
If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away
There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]

And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'
I'm sitting here just contemplatin'
I can't twist  the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin.'

And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace.

And… tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don't believe we're on the eve Of destruction
Mmm, no no, you don't believe We're on the eve of destruction.

Eastern World, it is exploding? Not in 2011. That area that was so explosive in the 60's, has turned into peaceful economic powerhouses, for the most part, by 2011.

All the hate there is in Red China? This was written before Richard Nixon went to China and changed the world, written back when the Chinese all wore Mao jackets, when violent purges like the Cultural Revolution took place. No one in the 1960s could have guessed that by 2011 China would be a HUGE trading partner with America, with China having the world's second biggest economy, along with hundreds of McDonalds.

Old enough to kill, but not for votin'? That changed by the end of the 60's, or was it the early 70's?, courtesy of a president, last name of Nixon.

Selma, Alabama? I think that town has had a black mayor by the year 2011.

Marches alone can not bring integration? Well, by 2011, something sure did.

So, 46 years after "Eve of Destruction" was a hit song, I still don't think we are on the Eve of Destruction. Unlike some ignorant Drama Queens it is my misfortune to know.

Below is a YouTube video of "Eve of Destruction"...........