Self-Fulfilling Prophecies?

[ProfessorLayton]

I believe that whenever the world is in a "crisis", it's mostly due to ourselves. It's the human mentality to try to prevent bad things from happening to ourselves, but we don't realize that by trying to prevent bad things, we end up creating them.

Let me explain. If someone on the news said on a Wednesday that there would be a gas shortage by Friday, everyone would go out on either Wednesday or Thursday and buy up a whole bunch of gas so they wouldn't need any when the "shortage" happens. Well, when everyone goes out at the same time and buys a whole bunch of gas, of course there's going to be a shortage. Same thing happened in the late 20's which ended up being one of the causes of a chain of events that caused the great depression. Someone said that the stock market is crashing, so everyone went out and sold their stocks because they were afraid that the stock market was going to crash while they had their stock and then not being able to sell. Once again, when everyone goes out and sells their stocks, the stock market went and crashed only because people were told it was going to.

I think that we might just end up causing the end of the world this way. Please discuss on this topic because I've been wanting to have intelligent conversation recently and this is a good topic to discuss.

 

[Leorex]

some things happen like that, most do not.

 

[Worgen]

well panic is a well known cause of making a situation worse

 

[Deleric]

I will blow the world up if counties don't start handing me nukes.

*They give me nukes*

Cool.

*I blow up the world with those nukes*

 

[Gizmo]

Maybe we should tell people the world is going to end then all the idiots will commit suicide AND BAM theres a problem solved.

 

[Neonbob]

You make a good [sup]penis[/sup] point. Perhaps it's just the [sup]doodle[/sup] masochistic human urge to create terror and plague upon ourselves? Or perhaps it is just the way humans are as a species, not taking [sup]willy[/sup] anything in, just hearing the first word or two of a [sup]peepee[/sup] sentence and then acting upon that. Or maybe the God we were created by, if we were created by one, simply burnt into our [sup]dick[/sup] minds a need to do the exact opposite of what's logical at all times.

How's THAT for intelligent conversation?

Seriously though, you do raise a good point. I'm just incredibly immature.

I will blow the world up if counties don't start handing me nukes.

I will KILL YOU if you die.

Do you want my resurrection ray blueprints?
Don't worry, Popdafoo, I won't get into an "immature" derailment here.
And on topic: Most people are sheep, who will take the word of anyone who declares themselves to be an "expert" on topic x and provides just enough information on it to seem credible.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I also wonder about this often. I'll expand with the quote:

And on topic: Most people are sheep, who will take the word of anyone who declares themselves to be an "expert" on topic x and provides just enough information on it to seem credible.

Case in point, and strangely related: in my english class, we occasionally read books where there is a self fulfilling prophecy, but my teacher is convinced it was destiny, or some such crap. And every one falls in line with her because (see, here's the relation to the above quote) she's the teacher, and therefore must be correct about this. Luckily, although she will do her best to demolish me when I disagree over this kind of thing in class, if I do it on an essay or test, she'll accept my interpretation. Handy, because there's no way I'm going to change my interpretation because she says I should.

 

[Leorex]

I also wonder about this often. I'll expand with the quote:

And on topic: Most people are sheep, who will take the word of anyone who declares themselves to be an "expert" on topic x and provides just enough information on it to seem credible.

Case in point, and strangely related: in my english class, we occasionally read books where there is a self fulfilling prophecy, but my teacher is convinced it was destiny, or some such crap. And every one falls in line with her because (see, here's the relation to the above quote) she's the teacher, and therefore must be correct about this. Luckily, although she will do her best to demolish me when I disagree over this kind of thing in class, if I do it on an essay or test, she'll accept my interpretation. Handy, because there's no way I'm going to change my interpretation because she says I should.

i would suggest the tv show Lost. it is filled with questions of destiny. and so forth.

 

[dormin120]

Yeah, I agree, man just screws himself when trouble is fortold. Like in Macbeth, the proficy is that Macbeth will be king, so he kills the king to become king, unfortunatly he was insecure, so he killed all of his friends, and so someone eventually killed him. Man screws itself when it sees trouble.

 

[wewontdie11]

Psychologically self fulfilling prophecies can and probably will happen due to the underestimated power of the subconscious mind, but it doesn't work that way with everything.

 

[meatloaf231]

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens on Wall Street almost every day. For some completely unfounded reason, some idiot thinks that a certain company is going to go belly-up. He sells his stock, causing the stock value to drop. Others see this, and think "Oh, the stock is dropping, better sell it."

This spirals out of control and suddenly another business is bankrupt because people are stupid and panicky.

 

[delet]

Eh, let us die. Not like there's anything truly important to do, but that's another philosophy completely...

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

Eh, let us die. Not like there's anything truly important to do, but that's another philosophy completely...

you see comments like that convince people to hide and we will die of starvation.

that's how it works

 

[vede]

This is the only reason I'm genuinely frightened of the second half of the year 2012.

When people have been claiming it's the apocalypse for a couple centuries, and multiple people have predicted it, I imagine there's gonna be some major, major shit going down.

All because people, thinking they're about to do battle with the apocalypse, are going to go totally fucking crazy.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

This is the only reason I'm genuinely frightened of the second half of the year 2012.

When people have been claiming it's the apocalypse for a couple centuries, and multiple people have predicted it, I imagine there's gonna be some major, major shit going down.

All because people, thinking they're about to do battle with the apocalypse, are going to go totally fucking crazy.

well now you scared me into thinking that WILL happen so I am going to start hiding a gun under my bed

 

[supermaster1337]

that is how everything starts. Think of the stock market crashing.

 

[delet]

Eh, let us die. Not like there's anything truly important to do, but that's another philosophy completely...

you see comments like that convince people to hide and we will die of starvation.

that's how it works

Really? I need to be more convincing then.

There's no point to anything, cut your losses and end it now. It'll be sweet relief to end it early, and it'll be a lot quicker, and less painful.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

Eh, let us die. Not like there's anything truly important to do, but that's another philosophy completely...

you see comments like that convince people to hide and we will die of starvation.

that's how it works

Really? I need to be more convincing then.

There's no point to anything, cut your losses and end it now. It'll be sweet relief to end it early, and it'll be a lot quicker, and less painful.

really? god I better get to the gun shop before their sold out!

 

[delet]

Eh, let us die. Not like there's anything truly important to do, but that's another philosophy completely...

you see comments like that convince people to hide and we will die of starvation.

that's how it works

Really? I need to be more convincing then.

There's no point to anything, cut your losses and end it now. It'll be sweet relief to end it early, and it'll be a lot quicker, and less painful.

really? god I better get to the gun shop before their sold out!

Good idea,otherwise you'll have to use a knife or something and that'll be a bit slower. Kill yourself now, or you'll have to do it painfully later!

Fun fun; but seriously, do it.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Well, that kind of crap happens all the time in Greek Tragedies. They tell Oedipus that he will kill his father and have kids with his mother, so, not realizing that the people who raised him aren't really his parents, he runs away, kills some man at a crossroad, defeats the Sphinx in a battle of wits, becomes King, marries the queen and has four children with her.

Of course it turns out the man he killed was his father, the queen is his mother, and his children are his brothers and sisters. Fucked up, huh?

Anyway, I follow the principle that if you say something bad, it's more than likely it will happen. So don't say it.