It's always fun to go back and look at the predictions of famous "psychics" and see how wrong they were. Their wrong predictions never put them out of a job, of course: they earned their money by thrilling the reader. Here are some of the prominent prognosticatory flops from 1970:
*"Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years."
*"Between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the "Great Die-Off."
*"By 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions....By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine."
More predictions here, including legislation once suggested to stave off doom.
Posted by floridacracker at November 27, 2006 11:37 AMsounds like somebody had OA issues..
I predicted the Islamic takeover. Others did, but they were copycats.
Posted by: csason at November 27, 2006 12:56 PMWhat's OA, Owen?
Posted by: Donnah at November 27, 2006 01:05 PMOvereaters Anonymous...
I guess my eyes rolled over the binge/purge words and I got hung up...
I knew an OA person once, (probably more) and the 'issues' went way past what one assumes from the label 'overeater'. She was pretty skinny.
Those starvation predicitons just sounded like a food addict's skewvision of the future.
My version isn't about groceries..
Posted by: csason at November 27, 2006 06:31 PMJeez.... the *CL crowd was so angry back then, and so full of **BS that none of their ***CP's was even close to hitting the mark.
Amazingly enough, today we have Algore and the rest of the wannabee scientific ****GFC saying pretty much the same thing.
*CL = Chicken Little
**BS = awww common.....
***CP = Cataclismic Predictions
****GFC = Global Fearmongering Community
About 10-years ago, Paul Ehrlich began to be cited with authority by the MSM again. I was working in a local TV station newsroom at the time, and one of our reporters wanted to cite him as authority in a story she was doing. I told her about The Population Bomb and the predictions he had made.
Her eyes grew wide and she said, "My parents told me the 70s were awful, but I never knew they were that bad." Then I realized she had been born in 1973. She had no frame of reference to realize how idiotic Ehrlich's predictions in 1968, or in 1998, were.
Posted by: Juan Paxety at November 28, 2006 09:16 AMEhrlich's a trip. He's like the Jehovah's Witnesses: as soon as one prophecy fails, he comes up with another. He poisons people with doom and gloom for a hobby.
Posted by: Donnah at November 28, 2006 07:11 PM