I seem to be something of a millenniaist. If that's even a word. Or even if it's not; either way, I seem to believe that the millennia will prove somehow significant.
I don't believe in the least that Jesus will return to save us all for whatever it is Jesus wants to save us from. Ourselves, I guess. Nor do I believe, though I find it far more appealing, that King Arthur will, with the Knights of the Round Table, come to restore justice and peace to the world.
I do believe significant changes will happen. I believe they'll happen for a variety of reasons, but the major reason is this:
We expect them to happen.
There is a thing called self-fulfilling prophesy. Believe a thing, and conveniently, it will come true. Perhaps this is how religion was born. Perhaps there are more gods than exist in my philosophy. It is true, though, that things believed prove to be things that happen.
What these things are, I can't say. I have some speculations.
I think -- in fact, I almost hope -- someone will declare himself Christ reborn. I've been expecting it for a couple of years now. As far as I'm concerned, he should show up around Christmas this year; that gives him three years to do dramatic things that will prove him Christ reborn at the end of the century.
I'll be sorely disappointed in the human imagination as a whole if no one does this.
I think there will be a great deal more idiocy like that Heaven's Cult thing, whatever it was called. Heaven's Door? Anyway, the comet people. I think that people will choose to believe that the world is ending, in one fashion or another, and will take steps to do what is necessary to insure their existence in the Great Hereafter.
I think, furthermore, that as the millennia approaches, and more people start to worry about the Great Hereafter, more people will be suckered into cults like Heaven's Gate. That's what it was. Heaven's Gate. A confident leader is all that it takes to create a cult, and people will do nearly anything that a confident person tells them to. I mean, look at Germany in WW2.
I believe that there will be more and more perceived miracles. More people will see, talk to, and believe in angels, demons, devils and seraphim.
I think more people will be abducted by the Greys, the aliens.
I can't decide what the stock market will do. Part of me thinks that the entire world is going to become convinced the world is ending, pull all their money out, and the market will crash like nobody's ever dreamed of.
The other part of me thinks it'll skyrocket, and that the increases we're seeing today will look like nothing three years from now.
I believe there will be revolution.
I believe that there will be fantastic things done: people will set records and create music and do impossible things, because it is the start of a whole new era, and that makes it a good time to do impossible things.
I think there will be thousands and thousands of incredibly stupid deaths, far more publicized than they are today, because it is the mark, as my friend Darkness said, of a century. Of a millennia. Because what happens in this year -- these years, from 1999 to 2001, will define, in many ways, what we expect of the next ten, fifty, hundred years.
I believe this is all bullshit.
The year 2000 is a completely arbitrary mark. It's years and years off what the historians now believe is the actual birth date of Jesus of Nazareth, so-called Son of God. It doesn't mean diddly. Julius Caesar seized upon the date, created a calendar around it (and did you know that New Years Eve, 1999, is a Friday? *Damned* fine calendar, if you ask me), and human nature being what it is, a great many people have assigned a great deal of importance to the date.
There are an awful lot of people who will insist that the real 'celebratory' date is December 31, 2000, because the first year is 0, and so a decade does not end until it turns from 0 to 1. That's silly. Granted, they're right, but the truth of the matter is, when you look at the calendar and it goes from all those nines to all those zeroes, that's when it looks impressive. That's when people are going to party.
It seems to be a criminal waste to miss that sort of party because of technicalities.
1999 is going to be a terribly fun year. All sorts of utterly absurd things are going to happen. Mostly, though, I think there will be a great outpouring of creative energy, and that it's a ride I wouldn't miss for the world.
Prince is going to make more money off one song than anybody in human history ever has or probably ever will again.
All the same things that have ever happened will continue to happen. Some new things, like the return of Christ, or Arthur, or the invention of cold fusion, or the debut of another Michaelangelo, or the advent of war, will happen, and these things will be marked in history as very, very important.
I suppose, if we, as humans, mark them as significant, they become significant. The self-fulfilling prophecy, again.
It's silly.
It's also glorious and wonderful, and I intend to do what I can to help make the year glitter.