Straightforward article from AP about the 2012 doomsday silliness. Worth reading. The bit about kids and young mothers buying into this BS is sad and depressing.

Pure and simple this is Christian apocalyptism being projected onto the ancient Maya (in retrospect, even!) and various New Age theories (

Y2K did not come and go without a hitch. It caused heaps of work on computer systems to make them cope with it.

It had nothing to do with religion, superstition, Armageddon, armadillos…

Please, keep your arguments in the right departments

i was first exposed to the 2012 ‘meme’ back in ‘99 from one of Jose’s books, the mayan factor, and i never got the impression the world would end.

at one point i was of the opinion that the calendar ‘ending’ would represent our perception of time ending (the linear concept ending in favor of a holistic concept.) But then it was pointed out to me the calendar doesn’t actually end on 2012. so the hysteria is crap on many levels. oh well.

here’s to the singularity! Have You Heard About The MACHINE?

@Thad,

I’m trying to get across the idea of a recent “Apocalypse” that wasn’t, not to conflate computer code with a kooky belief system.

RM

“End of civilization” stories have resonance because today’s civilization is anti-life, built on slavery and genocide. Who *wouldn’t* want that to end? Thus, you see 2012s, Y2Ks, MADs. Our species ran off the rails when the concept of “total war” became normalized (and burning cities became necessary byproducts of bourgeois life “style”.) Until a modicum of sanity is restored to us, millions (billions?) will be hanging their hopes on such scenarios to deliver them to something beyond the hateful, limited horizons their lives are limited to today. Rational? Perhaps not, but certainly understandable.

Personally, I’m looking for a change, too. I don’t for a second believe the world ends in December 2012, but so what if it does? There’ll be plenty more to follow along in this one’s wake….

Having literally grown up in a bookstore, I have seen Armageddons come and go, usually in the form of doomy would-be best sellers promoting apocalypse du jour. The planetary alignment crap, the 80’s, 1999, etc. The end is always right around the corner. Why do people continually buy into it? I think it’s a narcissistic kind of denial of their own mortality. <i>“I can’t imagine a world without ME..!”</i> We’re all going to die eventually and the world will trundle on without us. I think the <i>end of the world</i> is more comforting for some folks - like an idiot Emperor insisting on being buried with his wives, servants and pets.
I recently Netflix’d a documentary about it (2012: Science or Superstition) and couldn’t get past the 10 minute mark - not so much a reflection of the movie’s quality, but the fact that the whole subject seems like utter bullshit.

I really agree with what you said about residual christianity not being shaken off. Growing up in a religious family, having the apocalypse and return of Jesus beaten into my skull week after week was the norm. Now, even though I am atheist, I know these doomsday theories to be bullshit yet I always have a little doubt in the back of my mind. “What if they were right” is what it says, and it’s hard to shake off when you learned at a young age that the end of the world was coming and, even crazier, we are supposed to look forward to it and welcome it with open arms. Crazy…. So crazy…

here’s a quote from Mr. McKenna germane to the discussions. whether it’s accurate or not is not the point - the discussion seems to be based on WHY these doomsday scenarios gain such popularity.
and the quote, in McKenna’s own words, sort of confirms Mr. Leary’s opinions.

==

Human history represents such a radical break with the natural systems of biological organization that preceded it, that it must be the response to a kind of attractor, or dwell point that lies ahead in the temporal dimension. Persistently Western religions have integrated into their theologies the notion of a kind of end of the world, and I think that a lot of psychedelic experimentation sort of confirms this intuition, I mean, it isn’t going to happen according to any of the scenarios of orthodox religion, but the basic intuition, that the universe seeks closure in a kind of omega point of transcendance, is confirmed, it’s almost as though this object in hyperspace, glittering in hyperspace, throws off reflections of itself, which actually ricochet into the past, illuminating this mystic, inspiring that saint or visionary, and that out of these fragmentary glimpses of eternity we can build a kind of map, of not only the past of the universe, and the evolutionary egression into novelty, but a kind of map of the future, this is what shamanism is always been about.

One quick note - the calendar you have posted up is actually an Aztec calendar - a common misconception, as the Mayan calendar looks less impressive - see here http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/8844250/2/istockphoto_8844250-maya-calendar.jpg

It’s not the end of the world, it’s just a Big Change. I don’t see how it can’t be. I’ve been watching Terence McKenna’s predictions come true right to schedule over the last ten years. Just watch our culture shift into pure informational chaos?

To reiterate what others have pointed out, perhaps Y2K “happened” and we’re living in its horrific wake.  But then I’ve often theorized that I overdosed in 1980 and went to hell.

Terence said over and over that 2012 was not the end of the world as in Christian apocalyptic sandwich board street prophet, but end of the world as we know it.  He always added, “But I could be wrong.”

Off-subject, Brendan Mullen RIP.  A beautiful cat.

Apocalypse? “Big Change?” Puhleeze. The only difference will be that there will be a few more disillusioned idiots around. A good thing imo.

The only thing about it I don’t like is that this meme will never die, even after 21/12/12 (or 12/21/12, depending on your notation). Apocalypse will always be to come. We can count on it as sure as we can count on the sun to rise, the ocean tide to ebb and flow. The true apocalypse is internal and never ending. Let your old self die so that the new self may thrive. Rinse and repeat.

Cheers!