Every January, people worldwide decide what they would most like to accomplish in the 12 months ahead. They resolve to lose weight, save more money or finally quit smoking. This year, however, you can expect a few more people planning to go bungee jumping or learning to ride a motorcycle. Resolutions may well be getting more adventurous as more and more people realize that in two years, all the resolutions of yore will be for naught. They are bracing themselves for the cataclysm that has everyone from New Agers to New York Times reporters to NASA talking. They are bracing themselves for 2012.
Many of us have heard the apocalypse predicted by the Mayans is set for Dec. 21, 2012. According to popular media, you can expect wars, plagues and natural disasters galore. For a preview, you can watch a digitized version of a day filled with tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes destroying our landmarks in movies such as 2012 and shows like The History Channel’s The Nostradamus Effect. Apparently nothing says apocalypse like the Eiffel Tower in flames. If you’re not as visual, there are literally thousands of websites offering enlightenment on the prophecy and advice on how to survive to see 2013. Companies across the globe are encouraging citizens to be prepared for this catastrophe, and even our own government is getting in on it. People everywhere are preparing, not just with survival kit basics, but with additional survival gear you would liken to a nuclear holocaust, while others have no intention of surviving the fire and brimstone and instead plan on racking up credit card debt and having one hell of a time.
If the Mayans had known that by ending their calendar they would incite doomsday frenzy, perhaps they would have been more specific in how to interpret their method of time keeping. Countless 2012 fanatics and news media sources tell us Dec. 21, 2012 is the last day of the Mayan 5,125-year Long Count Calendar, the longest cycle of their time keeping system. It is also the end of the 13th b’ak’tun, a smaller cycle within the calendar. This is significant because The Popol Vuh, the book of early Mesoamerican mythologies, states that in Mayan history man was created on the eve of the 14th b’ak’tun, marking the end of one world and the start of another, the basis for the catastrophe theory. The Christian Science Monitor points out that be that as it may, the actual b’ak’tun system goes out to 20 b’ak’tuns not 13. This essentially says that only by misinterpreting the Mayan calendar does 2012 equal the end of the world. Believers insist the date is significant because it is the “end” of the cycle, failing to realize that a cycle, by definition, knows no end.
An all too familiar cycle is one of human fear. Throughout history, people have repeatedly sounded the alarm due to some allegedly imminent threats, be they aliens, nuclear wars, falling asteroids or the mysterious Y2K. At every turn, there has been someone selling something sure to protect you and your family. It is implied that to know something awful is coming and not prepare for it is downright sinful. This scenario has been played out countless times, and NASA’s Dr. David Morrison is tired of it. In his interview with The New York Times regarding 2012 speculation, he said, “There is no ethical right to frighten children to make a buck,” yet making a buck is just what many are doing and have done for centuries. This time around it is survival kits, recently it was generators and before that bomb shelters, all marketed as ways of insuring your survival against the unthinkable.
Right. The Greek word apokalypto translates literally to “unveiling,” something far from sinister. To the Mayans, the end of one world led to the beginning of another, and perhaps that is how we should see 2012. People are seeing events like the collapse of the American economy, increasing violence and climate change as sure signs the world is ending. Instead, they should be seeing these events as signs that the world is preparing for change. 2012 is already affecting people’s perspectives, and Daniel Pinchbeck, author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, told NPR he believes “a shift in spiritual consciousness is already happening” and he may very well be right. Even if we all wake up on Dec. 22 to the same old world, the mere thought that we might not should make us take a serious look at our priorities. Perhaps by surviving 2012 we will unveil a new and improved world with a changed outlook. So the next time you hear about the end of the world as we know it, consider that might not be the worst thing.
Allegra Dimperio ([email protected]) is a freshman intending to major in journalism and theater.
