Few Americans are worked up over the coming end of the Mayan “long” calendar; the citizens of China and Russia, however, are reacting differently…
…by rushing stores and stockpiling goods! Russia’s leaders have even felt compelled to publicly comment on the topic to assuage public fears.
Weird, right? Or maybe not, Save Jerseyans.
This snippet from a U.K. Telegraph piece on the topic caught my eye:
In an editorial on Friday, the Moscow broadsheet Vedomosti said the atmosphere of unease reflected something deep in the Russian character. “Your average American will run for salt and matches only under the real threat of a storm or tornado, announced by the authorities for the next day.
“Our Russian psychosis has two curious features. Firstly, that an 80 per cent Christian Orthodox society for some reason reacts to a Mayan calendar which no one has even seen. And secondly, that the end of the world is perceived as an economic crisis that can be survived on the banal level of consumption.”
Calling post-Soviet Russia “80% Christian” might be pushing it.
A lot.
Depending upon which poll/census data you choose to believe, roughly half of the Russian people don’t have any religious beliefs. Over 80 years of equating faith in God to “opium” — and enforcing this philosophy at bayonet point — will have that effect.
Americans are headed in the same direction if Election 2012’s trends hold; a full 20% of this cycle’s young voters don’t affiliate with any organized religion.
When you believe in nothing, Save Jerseyans, then you’ll fall for anything.
Mayan calendars. Dictators. Socialized medicine. Any idol will do. Perhaps that’s why the Russian people are wigging out over a misreading of an ancient, remote culture’s astral musings while Chris Christie has to threaten New Jerseyans to leave the beach with a massive hurricane bearing down on them?
For now.
