Originally published at: Exit Mundi, classic website collection of possible end-of-the-world scenarios, had "mass insanity" down for 2020 | Boing Boing
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The Rorty quote seems much closer to the money.
“Mass insanity” is not a good description of what has been going down on the right anyhow, as it is closer to misinformation driven collective delusion than genuine mental illness, which is internal in origin.
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Heinlein wrote something on the same theme in " The Year of the Jackpot" where a statistician keep track of different cycles in society and note that they are all going to peak at the same time in a orgy of mass insanity.
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He also literally called this period “The Crazy Years” in his overall timeline. As in, he called it for the last and first couple of decades of the 20th and 21st centuries. IIRC, it formally ended when their economy switched to resource extraction and colonization of the rest of the solar system, so yay? Sadly, I recall it also ended with a couple of limited nuclear exchanges, mandating his “New Chicago” setting for “Methuselah’s Children.”
And The Prophet’s theocracy.
I don’t think that short story fits in with the rest of his stories given how it ends. Turned out human cycles of craziness was rather insignificant compared to the larger cycles of the sun. It ends with the protagonist looking up as a giant sunspot engulfs the sun. My impression is that it spelled the end of humanity.
Wrong story, you’re thinking of the Heinlein started/Spider Robinson finished book Variable Star which took place in a different timeline. Heinlein wrote an 8 page outline without an ending, and you can really tell where his notes stopped. Methuselah’s Children is the book about the first FTL drive and diaspora of the Howard Families.
Nope, it was the right story
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