Humans are inherently conservative and resistant to change. We refuse to give up smoking, or poor eating habits, or a sedentary lifestyle, even when we know that such habits are killing us. Our sense of logic might tell us that changes are urgently required, but we continue to race ahead to our own destruction. Something like that occurs in the ninth chapter of the Revelation, when humans refused to heed the most obvious signs of the need to change their ways:
One third of humanity was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulphur, which came out of their mouths… The rest of humanity, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the things that they were doing. They kept worshipping demons, and idols made from gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which cannot see, and cannot hear, and cannot walk. They did not repent of their murdering, or witchcraft, or sexual immorality, or stealing.
There is something in the human spirit that craves being in control, doing our own thing, and going our own way, without interference from others or external circumstances. The problem is that our sense of being in control is just an illusion, our grip on life is fragile and fleeting, and our actions have consequences which will catch up with us. So we can choose to ignore reality, or we can choose to heed it.