The Crazies Are Among Us

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it the greater communication pathways open to the world in the last ten to fifteen years, but more than ever, it looks like the crazies are not only running wild, but growing in number.  Here's a sampling.

Nut job Harold Camping held a news conference on May 23rd.  Of course the 23rd was a day that wasn't supposed to happen since 'ole Harold predicted the world would come to an end on May 21st. When it did not, Harold disappeared for a day and then re-emerged on the 23rd to say that his calculations had been wrong and that the world would actually come to an end on October 21st of this year.  Harold didn't just predict that the world would end on May 21st, he spent one million dollars advertising this off the wall prediction through billboards and by other means. By the way, he didn't just predict that the 21st of May was the day the world would end, he further refined that by saying it would happen at 6:00 PM EST (daylight savings time, of course).

Before we fall on the floor, holding our sides and laughing at Harold, we should consider the terrible heartache and suffering Harold's prediction cause to those who were taken in by him.  His latest predictions resulted in chaos among his followers and others who believed him. Some quit their jobs, others sold all their possessions before the rapture date, and one mother tried to kill her two children.  If Harold isn't the wacko to date for 2011, he is certainly a strong contender for that honor.

Then there is this quote, which appeared recently in the Huffington Post.

"On fringe sites around the web, a new conspiracy theory is being cultivated: the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson, Arizona that took the lives of six and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), never actually took place."

This, in spite of the great number of people who were killed or wounded by the deranged gunman.  The main architect behind this conspiracy theory is a man named Ed Chiarini.  This Harold Camping wannabe claims that the whole shooting story is a government hoax and that all participants were actors from either the Tuscon area or Hollywood.

To further compound the tragedy for the families of the victims (and some of the wounded themselves, who have since recovered), followers of this conspiracy theory showed up at their homes demanding to see photos of the incident and claiming they don't believe it ever happened, adding salt to the wounds of grief stricken family members and survivors.

Finally, we have the latest from the Tea Party.  Hey, when nut jobs are mentioned, can the Tea Party be far behind?  Here's a quote from TV Weekly Magazine:

"The Tea Party Patriots, Georgia-based but claiming 1,000 chapters nationally, are instructing members to remind teachers that a 2004 federal law requires public schools to teach Constitution lessons the week of Sept. 17, commemorating the day the document was signed. And they'd like the teachers to use material from the Malta, Idaho-based National Center for Constitutional Studies, which promotes the Constitution as a divinely-inspired document.

The center's founder, W. Cleon Skousen, once called Jamestown's original settlers communists, wrote end-of-days prophecy and suggested Russians stole Sputnik from the United States. In 1987, one of his books was criticized for suggesting American slave children were freer than white non-slaves."

Here's another crazy claiming the end of the world (move over, Harold), God wrote the constitution, the Russians stole Sputnik from the US (perhaps from area 51?), slave children were actually the freest of all children, and anyone who who falls into his disfavor is a communist.  How the Jamestown settlers offended him is a mystery to me.

In years past some self-proclaimed prophet clad in a dirty white robe and sandals might stand on a park bench and proclaim to the world that Betty White was the Antichrist, or that the sun actually revolved around the earth, but by and large, they were small-time and harmless.  Now, with the Internet, email, text messaging, social networks, smart phones, up to the minute 24 hour TV news, and the rest, these village idiots have risen to the level of a major, and sometimes dangerous, nuisance.

Technology is not the problem, but the use of technology for the purpose of deception, spreading lies, and fear mongering seems to be a growing problem.  Of course, those who accept at face value these outlandish claims also bear a large part of the responsibility for not separating what is feasible and logical from what is not.   P.T. Barnum has been proven right, once again.

Whatever news source you prefer, more stories of new crazies are sure to appear before too long.  They are, unfortunately, part of the world in which we live.