Can something end when it has never existed? There were outcasts dying in despair in all ages whether by exposure, alcoholism, or another cause and plenty livin

Can something end when it has never existed? There were outcasts dying in despair in all ages whether by exposure, alcoholism, or another cause and plenty living in despair that society considers it actively rude to bring up "erased" during such "optimism". During the Cold War there was an anxiety that the world would end in thermonuclear fire.