Thursday, March 26, 2009

The 2012 meme


The end (or the beginning) is nigh!


I took this low-quality cameraphone picture in a Barnes & Noble. Personally, I'm grateful for the 2012 phenomenon: it's helped focus much-needed attention on issues pertaining to the near-future and our role as planetary stewards.

I'm ultimately agnostic regarding whether anything remotely "weird" occurs on December 21, 2012. My guess is that the fervently New Age crowd is in for a disappointment (which will, of course, be duly incorporated into its existing belief structure for fear of fracturing the entire edifice).

But if thinking about the future by way of the 2012 meme catalyzes interest in making the future a place where we might actually want to live, I'm all for it. And perhaps the ancient Mayans would have agreed.

9 comments:

Henry Baum said...

The cosmic shift might happen for some people, but not others - like other leaps in evolution. So the shift might not even be noticeable for most. The "good vibrations" of 2012-speak is more positive than, say, the unrelenting grimness of "The Road."

Have you seen "Knowing"? Curious what you think.

Mac said...

Haven't seen "Knowing," nor do I plan to. Hollywood lost my interest a few years ago.

Henry Baum said...

For someone with an interest in apocalypse scenarios and UFOs, I think there's a lot to chew on. Interesting to see how the mainstream tackles these things.

Mike Clelland! said...

Mac - you simply have to go back with a real camera.

This is too funny.

Anonymous said...

I have seen that movie. It started somewhat interesting but gradually degenerated into a load of cr**. Sorry and no disrespect.

Mac said...

@Henry

Unfortunately, it seems we're well on our way toward some sort of apocalypse, 2012 or no 2012.

Anonymous said...

On December 22rd, 2012, I expect to be a'partyin' like it's a Princely 1999. Or maybe have a calming cup of ayahuasca tincture tea, depending on what happens. 8^}

Yes, the Mayan calendar thing about 12-21-12 is numerologically suggestive, but doesn't actually portend any great apocalypse or new age paradigm shift--although it could conceivably become a self-fulfilling prophecy--the winter solstice (aka shortest day of the year), when the earth's axis is most tilted away from the sun relative to the ecliptic plane, does coincide on that date with the end of the 13th Baktun phase (each being 400 years long) of the Mayan long count calendar, but the Mayans did not predict an "end to history" or apocalypse--just a new phase, the beginning of the 14th Baktun, although triskaidekaphobics may disagree. But the Mayan calendar does not "end" on that date.

And just because some think a precessional alignment (every 25,800 years or so?) of the earth, sun, and galactic equator also "coincides" (well, not really) near the solstice** ["critics suggest that fears about 2012 should be tempered by the fact that the alignment in question takes place over a 36-year period, corresponding to the diameter of the sun, with the most precise convergence having already occurred without incident in [May] 1998."], this amounts to astrological hyperbole or Mayanism, both of which, imho, are not objectively predictive. Odd that solar maximum generally coincides with 2012 though, given the new NAS report you posted about.

But the 2012 promoters have mythic diversionary insecurities to sell, and it's presumably somewhat profitable to flog this stuff, even if (or perhaps especially because of, in our age) doom and gloom (or the new age obverse) fits right into preconceived ideologies and beliefs. I doubt the cultural effect of 2012 beliefs will thus be positive. Darkling new lamps for old! Sad, that--caveat emptor.

**(from Wiki http://tinyurl.com/d7dse7)

So don't worry--be happy! Or else!

Now, 2017 A.D., otoh.... Ahem. Sorry.

Mac--guess what the precise maximum solstice time-point is for Dec. 21, 2012: 11:11 a.m.! Thought you might get a premonitory kick out of that. I wonder if that 11:11 coincidence I noticed you mentioned on twitter a few times was absorbed from either Pinchbeck or McKenna input.

Booga-booga! 8^}

Anonymous said...

2012 Doomsday: The perfect drug for religious fear mongers. Fire and brimstone! The push they want and or feel they need to engage in an attempted self fulfilling prophecy.

2012 Transformation: The rest of us...I think its pretty clear to most level headed folk that 2012 really just gives us a collective window to project our intentions and ideals. There won't be a single event but rather an excuse to engage in an accelerated transition from one way of understanding to another. It may be as fundamental as a paradigm shifting scientific discovery. My feeling however is that it's more of a subtle chain of social uprisings which swiftly shift us into a new way of doing things. A breaking of the cycle.

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