more on the apocalypse

a couple of months ago, i was talking with my mom about how this era that we're in is like the 60's. one reason i said was that we, in this era, are waiting for the apocalypse from global warming, etc and they in that era were waiting for the apocalypse from the nuke. and the war. then my mom said something very interesting. she said "well, yeah. but people have always waited for the apocalypse. i mean, the fall of the roman empire, the civil war, they thought that was the apocalypse, the depression, they thought that was the apocalypse, the hole in the ozone, AIDS, all that stuff." so that made me think.
we always assume that the latest disaster is going to end the world, when really its only going to end the world as we know it. we can't really end the world, we can only change it. the human race will keep battering on into the abyss, because really there is no end. this is both good news and bad news, i think.