Every religion, every worldview has an apocalypse story. From ancient prophecies to the most unstrung Internet rants, our species almost compulsively indulges in dreadful fantasies about the end of the world. And every time, the man on the sidewalk with the signboard that reads “The End of the World is Nigh!” has to walk it back. Mayan calendars and Reddit subthreads alike must be regarded through the lens of metaphor. We didn’t literally mean The end of The world was nigh, we just meant an end to a world was nigh. Which it was, every time. We just meant: change.

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