Last night I watched Billy Connolly recount the witch trials of Salem. It got me thinking.

At the time, witches were believed to be real. Mass hysteria ensued as a result. People concocted the most absurd 'evidence' that someone was a witch to fit the belief they were real. /2

2. Today, we are still prone to mass hysteria. On the flimsiest of evidence people are accused of being racists or right-wing extremists. This snowballs as hysteria builds, to the point where we're led to believe that racism/extremism is commonplace. /3

3. Similarly, hysteria is escalated by the choice of language. 'Global Warming' became 'Anthropogenic Global Warming' then 'Climate Change' then 'Climate Crisis' then 'Climate Emergency' with some saying 'the world is burning'.

Escalation fuels hysteria. /4

4. Why must we create/over-exaggerate boogeymen: yellow peril; peak oil; coming ice age; global nuclear war; hole in the ozone layer; Y2K; Climate Change; SARS; MERS; COVID?

None has decimated mankind, yet all were predicted to. /5

5. We used to fear God. Has the decline in formal religion created the need for us to fear other things?

Does humanity require a threat that also requires behavioural change, whether that threat is proven or not?

Why must we move from one doomsday scenario to the next? /6

7. Is it a requirement of the human psyche to battle 'evil', how ever that evil manifests?

What would our world be like, what would our lives be like, if we chose not to create or over-exaggerate threats to our lifestyles or existence?

So, there's my random thoughts for the day