Is The End Of The World Nigh?

There's been a plethora of material written and spoken about "the end times" or about the coming end of this "world age" as they so call it.  From Revelations to the ancient Mayans and their calendar which ends abruptly at the end of the year 2012.

So...is the end just around the corner?  Are we living during what can best be described as the second incarnation of "the days of Noah"?

The answer to the first question:  There's no way of telling unless it actually does happen (either way we'd still be helpless to do anything about it).  The answer to the second question:  In a manner of speaking, ALL periods of time are like "the days of Noah" in character---for, as an expression it denotes the tendency of humans to always habitually "go about business-as-usual" regardless of current social climate, political climate, economic conditions, social trends, or of on-going crisis either domestically or world-wide.  It's a trademark characteristic of human nature to want everything to continue being "normal" as usual, which also means being in denial when things get a bit "radical" or out-of-sorts ...even during the most screwed-up periods of time most people try to make things as "regular" as they can and still go about their lives in the usual manners as always before.

Plus, there's always been some kind of "crisis" going on: wars; natural disasters (tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, blizzards, etc)---which always seem to come, wreck immense damage and destruction, then they're over with as quickly as they came; social upheavals (riots, strikes, financial crisis, etc); crime waves ...and the like. 

So it stands to reason that if a crisis out of the ordinary were to come about, it probably wouldn't (at first) get more than the usual passive attention by the general populace until it finally was obvious: "this is no ordinary war" ...or "weather pattern" ...or "earthquake pattern".  Much the way it likely happen during the eve of the "great flood".

But a period like that could occur at any point in time and we would never be any more prepared for it no matter what, regardless of the potential of current technology to potentially avert it.  Because our mind-set is always on the level of:  "Let's just hope something like that never occurs during my lifetime."  And that's what's meant by the expression "the days of Noah"---the propensity of humans to blindly go about their lives in the usual way just hoping nothing tragic or adversely out-of-the-ordinary ever happens to them.