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In spite of denial and suppression of talk about the approaching cataclysms, when the earth slows and then stops in its rotation the truth will be known. How could it not? There will be in general two responses in those previously unaware or in denial - flight and paralysis. Paralysis needs no explanation. Sitting at home and drinking the liquor cabinet dry. Baking a cake and throwing a party just to pass the hours more quickly in a diversion. In paralysis, no attempt to deal with the impending disaster is made. Of course, those who remain in denial even when night does not become day or the day refuses to end are in a type of paralysis. There will be those who will go to work and attempt to shop and attend social functions, as though nothing were amiss. Activity and familiarity tend to comfort.
Those who sense the seriousness of the situation will attempt to flee. If they have been informed, but scoffed, they may know what to do and where to go, and attempt to do so in great haste. Belongings and even loved ones left behind, doors left wide open, heading for the hills, for cover, to escape the city. If they have not been informed they will attempt to flee anyway, going in all directions. Some, faced with a baking Sun that will not relent will crouch under structures that will ultimately crush them, knowing no better. Some, hearing the Earth moaning beneath them, will take to the air or sea if possible, only to find themselves eventually dashed out of the skies by hurricane winds or crushed under waves hundreds of feet high. Those who have prepared and placed themselves and their loved ones in safe places will not find themselves overrun at the last minute. This is not because last minute stragglers are not trying to join them. This is because the stragglers cannot reach them.
Imagine the situation. On one side of the Earth the Sun is not setting. Temperatures rise. Machines break down. The telephone lines are jammed, and highways blocked with disabled cars. Those on foot don't last long in the heat. Essentially, all is heat-locked. People will seek a cool spot and wait for whatever comes. On the other side of the Earth perpetual night is reigning. Here activity is not heat- locked, but is rather sleep-locked. Businesses do not open as everyone is confused. Are the clocks broken? Telephone lines are also jammed, and lack of coordination is evident everywhere. The night shift goes home, eventually, exhausted, but the day shift never shows up. The traveler attempting to drive somewhere finds gas stations unattended and cars out of gas blocking the roads. So those becoming aware of the situation at the last minute do not go anywhere, essentially, whether they want to or not.
The exception might be the wealthy or powerful who have maintained a plane, fueled and ready, and find all these arrangements working well when the crisis arrives. Private landing strips and well-stocked country estates make a last minute flight to safety possible. These are the types of plans being made by members of the establishment who, while tending to themselves, are working hard to keep the rest of humanity in blind ignorance.