Just as information becomes freely disseminated so as the efforts to contain information.
I imagine a meteor heading towards earth and NASA with the rest of the global alert system's program for extraterrestrial threats would already knew about years ahead of time. But there's no need to cause global panic so the information gets classified until the last minute where no one could do anything about it except wait. And the rest of the important figures and their significant others have bunkers and space ships ready to evacuate on the sidelines.
While this is a cruel fate for the rest of the population, I couldn't really hold it against the top 1% of the top 1% if survival of our species was the end game. But it still sucks.
Imagine hearing about the disaster unfolding on the evening news and you still have to report to work tomorrow. Because there's no company policy written that this type of black swan event is on the employee manual.
We will unlikely be the main character in this world's history. We're not going be the sage with the privilege of knowing. Nobody ever asked about Alexander the Great's 3rd servant's life or whatever he did while during service. And that side character that barely gets any screen time if lucky, in the pages of history is us. And that's fine.
This is one of the reflections that kept me from not overextending myself worrying about things that don't concern me or just keeps me moving into things I have no control of. There's a bigger fish out there making ripples and we're just water striders doing our thing. There's the grand scheme, the master plan that keeps the world moving, and all the things hidden in conspiracies I'll never know.
I'm a non-playable character in someone else's fantasy novel and I'm cool with that.
Thanks for your time.