Sunday, September 16, 2007

The end is near

Apparently the world will end in 2012. I learned this as I was walking through Barnes and Noble today, there was this book, which I thought about picking up just for fund and curiosity. I didn't, but wanted to post about it but I couldn't remember the name of it so I went to the Barnes and Noble website and searched for the keyword "2012". There were 90 items returned for that keyword. After looking at several of the books on the list, the book I originally looked for seems to be rather tame. It just suggests that there will be a massive metaphysical awakening in 2012, while others say that there will be massive earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters that will end life on this planet for us and most all living creatures. Most of these books do say that they also will tell you how to be one of the rare few humans who survive this ending of life. The initial book relies on the Mayan calender which suggests that there will be a huge shift in human culture in 2012. This same calendar is used by several of the other books in addition to a lot of other "evidence". They suggest that geologists, seismologists, cosmetologists and other scientists are really worried about the year 2012 and the effects on the earth. They point to the fact that the earth will be at the center of the galaxy in this year and that there are supposed to be massive solar flairs that will reverse the poles of the earth thus changing our rotation. Some of the books even identify the day that all of this will happen as it is all supposed to happen within a few hours. The day is December 21, 2012.

Ok so now that I have informed you all that we have a little over four more years to live, you may be wondering why I created this post it is a bit extreme and sounds more like that crazy street person who is always predicting the end of the world. Well, really I think it is like the predictions for 2000, when there was supposed to be the apocalypse because it was a new millennium and well nothing happened or did it? Maybe the electing of W. was the first sign of the apocalypse, I know I have thought at times that he was the devil so maybe something did happen in 2000.

Seeing the book also coincided with me thinking about what would happen if there was a revolution in the U.S. I have seen several posts predicting that Bush and/or Cheney may seize power espeically if the election in '08 does not go there way. I know it is a bit of a joke, but what if it happened or what if the next president continued to extend the powers of the executive branch as Bush has done. That email that I received that I referenced here shows the fear that some have that a woman or a black man may become president. There seems to be a bit of a revolution brewing. What happens if there is another election where the president is not voted in by the masses, do we finally revolt? This could happen either way, whether it is a Democrat or a Republican that wins. Is there a real divide being created between the right and the left? I am not referring to those who are in the extreme of either. I am referring to the individuals that I read every day, whose blogs I admire. There seems to be a bit of a spirit where we feel that the two sides are beginning to have real division, this may not be reflected in our politicians, but in the everyday people I believe it is reflected. I can also refer to Ann Coulter, Pammy, Ann Althouse, Bill O'Reilly all of which are not outside the mainstream in reality. They may seem like nutjobs to us on this side of the divide, but to many they are reality and we are the nutjobs. So this election and possibly the 2012 election are crucial in American politics and these people who have all of these apocalypse 2012 books may not be so far off. There may not be huge natural disasters or the end of the world, but we may have a huge shift politically, culturally, economically and religiously. And yes what happens in the U.S. does affect the rest of the world, so if there is a huge shift here it will be reflected worldwide.

Or maybe it is just my love of dystopian novels, revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata, and an overactive imagination that have led me to these conclusions, I just don't know.

4 comments:

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

I've heard about the Mayan calender stuff and it's kind of trippy. Personally I believe the end of the world is either 100 or zero %, depending on who is dying at the time. For the person dying it's 100% for the rest of us it's 0 %.


And you're not the only one who lives in fear of Bush declaring himself President for life. I'm ready to revolt if he does.

By the way Boxer, we're having a anti war demonstration/march/rally this Saturday in Johnson City, I"m not sure where in NC you live but if you want to join us then we'd be super grateful. I'll buy you a beer and have you by the house to cook something for you if you show up. Check out my vacation wrap up to see what I look like and if you come then tell me who you are and we'll hang out afterwards.

Comrade Kevin said...

Activists have long been predicting a major seismic shift in politics and world affairs. Whether that will ever come to pass, I doubt anyone can ever say for sure.

Like you, I take a sort of comfort in the fact that I have another four years to live. :-) Makes me want to take charge and accomplish something before I die.

GourmetGoddess said...

heh, I greatly enjoy the whole Mayan calendar thing. There was a hilarious show on some channel about it several years ago - one of those channels that goes in cycles and has nothing but programs on Nostradamus one week and nothing but WWII the next. Anyway, in this particular show, they mentioned that one aspects of the cycle was that it was likely that our technology would rebel against us. At the time, all I could think of was all of humans being killed by toasters toasting our faces. I think The Simpsons did something similar to it several years later .....

Chris Fenwick said...

So how will WE write it? How shall it read when we look back on December 21, 2012? We certainly have the elements in place to destroy ourselves. The planet has experienced cataclysmic events in its history - polar shifts, ice ages, etc. No one really knows. What the Mayan�s meant with their End-Count calendar will always be up for speculation. It fires the imagination, for sure. SOooo let's write it like we want it. That is what Chris Fenwick did in the #1 Visionary Novel: "the 100th human." You choose... www.the100thhuman.com