2012: Apocalypse or New Beginning?

I wrote briefly in my earlier post on the sad state of modern hollywood about how society these days seems to have an almost disturbingly obsessive need to think about the end of the world. The recent surge in popularity surrounding the end-times has had a lot to do with the increasing public awareness of a certain little prophecy written by an ancient Mayan prophet that predicted the end of the world occurring in the year 2012 A.D. Naturally, as we draw closer and closer to this date, people of all stripes begin throwing in their own two cents. Opinions seem split in this regard; some argue that it will be the end of everything as we know it, while others claim December 21st, 2012 represents the date of a new spiritual or cosmic awakening for mankind. About the only thing these people CAN agree on is their belief that something will, in fact, happen on that date.

It seems to me that all of this panic, excitement and confusion is a little premature. Sure, the world MIGHT end in 2012, but how can any of us know what the future really holds? By this logic, how would someone several thousand years ago have known that the world would end in 2012, when he himself didn't even use the same dating system as we do? I know the arguments made about this--that he didn't specifically say 2012, but the number he chose to end his calendar with simply equates with what we would consider to be 2012--but even so, there is no way to know what was going through this ancient Mayan's mind as he wrote out his calendar. He could have indeed been watching the skies and predicting the astronomical phenomenon that would cause the end of the world thousands of years later, but it's equally likely that he just arbitrarily ended the calendar with that date because, much like if one of us thinks of the year 4000 AD, its almost inconceivable a date to consider since one's own lifetime doesn't extend that far.

The New Ageists argue that 2012 represents the dawn of a new era in human spiritual understanding and existence, and in some ways this is a much more reasonable answer than the flat-out "we're all going to die!" argument of some of the naysayers. Even so though, I'm tempted to wonder how much growth we're really going to accomplish in only two years that we haven't so far over the last hundred. It's almost impossible to walk into a Chapters or other bookstore these days and not find the New Age section literally flooded with apocalyptic literature. I fancy myself a bit of a New Ageist too, but personally I'd rather read about something OTHER than the end of the world.

So when it comes to the end of the world, where do I stand? Frankly, I don't think the world is going to end. The United States' economy may finally collapse and China may rise as a power, the West may embrace a new spiritual direction, or any number of other things may happen, but the world will not end. Remember how silly we all felt when the year 2000 rolled around and nothing happened? This is the same thing I predict will happen in 2012, and then all those apocalyptic naysayers are going to seem pretty silly. Then again, who knows? Maybe we'll all get lulled into a false sense of security, thinking nothing will happen until its too late and we're living in our own post-apocalyptic wasteland!...er...probably not.