Celestial Intentions: Comets and the Horns of Moses
...in the beginning of such times of trouble, people want to believe that their government - their kings and ruling elite - are powerful enough, or pure enough, to control nature such that the floods, wildfires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions cease and all returns to normal. And the ruling elite take advantage of this during such times by trying to find likely scapegoats in other nations, some minority group in their own country, or their personal enemies - including those who are pointing out that it just might be their corruption that is bringing on all the evils - so as to distract the larger populace from their own possible sins of commission or omission. This means that such a period can include protracted wars and the accompanying necessary burden of taxes, persecutions of this group or that group, generally increasing social hysteria and unrest, until finally, one day, the people, as a whole, wake up and see that their rulers have behaved very badly and all the blame gets dumped on them. This is ironic because an anthropocentric worldview where man believes he is in control stops people - even people in power - from being aware of the realities of our existence on this planet which include civilization destroying cosmic events.