Fear

Speaking broadly, there are two ways to think about life: passively or actively. Passive philosophy amounts to letting things happen, whereas active is about making things happen. I generally try to stay active. If I want something to happen, I need to make it happen. Sitting around waiting for something to happen or for someone to come along and tell you what to do is passive.

We’re living in some interesting times, and I’ve been wondering how psychology plays into the current doomsday phenomenon. It’s fun to study history about previous events related to mass panic and hysteria. Some gems from the Wikipedia article listing mass hysteria events: The dancing plague of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) in July 1518. Numerous people took to dancing for days.