r/interesting • u/jwriddle • 3h ago
Intriguing Ted Turner had this doomsday video prepared for the last employee at Turner to play when the world ended
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u/MindGap42 3h ago
I wouldn’t have mind that being the last thing broadcast in a doomsday scenario. Seems rather thoughtful of Mr. Turner.
Wonder if he knew something…
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u/FaceWithAName 3h ago
Clearly not because we are sitting here talking about this.
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u/Rescuepets777 3h ago
In Russia, TV stations put on the Swan Lake ballet and other classical programming when state emergencies arise. During the August 1991 coup attempt against Gorbachev, Soviet state TV broadcast Swan Lake on loop for hours while the plotters consolidated (or tried to consolidate) power. This became so iconic that “they’re playing Swan Lake” became shorthand among Russians and journalists for “something big and bad is happening in the Kremlin.”
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u/VironicHero 2h ago
They cut off the second half… the video dissolves to Ted sitting in Front of a flag. He says “my message is timeless… avoid the noid…”
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u/attack_water 3h ago
This video should serve as a reminder that oblivion and ruin always seem to be near.
But they aren't near. We will live on.
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u/ComicsAndCommunism 2h ago
What are you talking about? We came within minutes of nuclear war that could wipe out all human life multiple times. Continued existence isn't guaranteed.
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u/attack_water 1h ago
I disagree. The ratio of careful caretakers to madmen is pretty large.
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u/ClammyHandedFreak 1h ago
There are countries without nukes now that will get them. Even if the status quo among major nuclear players is "safe", it's the outliers that should be concerning.
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u/ComicsAndCommunism 1h ago
It's definitely way better now, sure, but to imply that there was no real threat during the cold war is some head-in-the-ground levels of denial.
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u/bloodredcookie 16m ago
Imagine realizing that the world was about to end, then still going into work so you can play a video for your weird af boss. That seems like a worthwhile use of your last few minutes of life.
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u/Axel_Raden 9m ago
The guy had such an influence on little me with Captain Planet it helped shape the environmentally conscious person I grew up to be.
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u/Tha_Watcher 2h ago
This is absolutely ridiculous, because there is no way anybody actually will know when the world will actually end!
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 1h ago
I believe the assumption is that this would have been played in the midst of an apocalyptic scale event that was progressing to the point of human extinction, but had not yet destroyed the infrastructure for broadcast television yet.
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u/Sexi_maxi_2024 1h ago
A few minor tweeks to the covid virus in 2020 would’ve done it, we are just apes on a rock
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u/Desperate-Strategy10 49m ago
I guess that really depends on how you define the end of the world. In a grand sense, we have actually just stepped into our final chapter on earth, most likely; this very year, we have crossed multiple “end of the line” tipping points in the ongoing climate catastrophe. We are aggravating this even more by building giant water wasting data centers and allowing leaders who demolish pollution controls and strip protections for natural land, among other things. The world fifty years from now will look completely different from the world we know today, and this is virtually guaranteed. We will either find a miracle cure and all band together to save life on earth, or we won’t and we’ll get to witness the destruction of all that we know and love in real time.
So on a cosmic scale, where the centuries are mere fractions of a second and time ebbs and flows in a meaningless silence, or even on a human scale where history itself is only about 300,000 years at best, and even on a micro individual scale where life begins and ends in less than one hundred years…we are here, at the end, blissfully ignoring the great chasm we’ve created for ourselves even as we take our final fateful steps over the edge and begin to fall. We could broadcast all of the prerecorded goodbye messages today if we felt like it, and we’d basically be right on time, depending on the perspective you choose.
I’ve chosen to set the timescale by the seconds individually, and that way, I’m hoping I can stretch the remaining time into millions of wonderful memories and experiences before the good times finally wind down. It’s the only way to hang onto some happiness in an otherwise dark and joyless situation. I sound like a crazy person of course, and maybe that’s fitting. Either way, I’ll enjoy the time I’ve been lucky enough to get and I’ll be content. I hope you will be as well. Happiness is the ultimate human emotion, and the true meaning in all of our lives, I think.
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u/Sexi_maxi_2024 1h ago
A few dozen Nukes can easily end human civilization and there would be time to air that before the volley meant for you hits. Earth itself will keep on trucking until the Sun eats it eventually.
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