Is the world going to end on 21/12/12? No.
I hate to say it, but conspiracy theories like these are usually grown from scepticism – albeit a massively flawed personal interpretation of minute kernels of truth, wrongly called ‘scepticism’. Take, for example, the popular Roswell UFO myth. As Dr. David Morrison (writing for the SKEPTIC Magazine) puts it:
“The alien stories are a fabrication, but the core fact is that an instrumented balloon did crash in Roswell on July 7, 1947“
The myth grew from the fact. People weren’t given too much information, so they effectively filled the gaps in themselves. Sadly, many are then convinced that these baseless elaborations are true – and so the tin foil hat brigade emerges. What makes the current public fascination with the supposed Mayan end-of-world ‘prophecy’ strange is that it, to put it at its simplest, is pure fiction. There was never even any ‘kernel of truth’, contrary to how much of the writing on the internet would have you believe. There was no ‘prediction’ of the end of the world, yet the myth is prevalent.
Even in school, I hear of the odd ‘theory’. People are surprisingly well-equipped for the spouting of bullshit, and I’m sure the internet has something to answer for.
It’s not hard to find the details of the upcoming apocalypse, and here are some of the ’2012′ disaster ‘theories’:
- Earth will collide with a rogue planet – killing us all.
- Earth’s magnetic poles will shift – killing us all.
- Solar flares will bombard the Earth – killing us all.
- A planetary alignment of the bodies in our solar system, or solar alignment with the centre of our galaxy will occur – killing us all.
- A close encounter with a black hole will take place – killing us all.
- Natural disasters will destroy the surface of the planet – killing us all, while providing the plot for a shitty film.
It’s fair to say that all of these events are highly unlikely. What the perpetuators of these varying accounts of our imminent demise forget is that since they made the claims, the burden of proof rests solely on them. It is not for us doubters to prove them wrong (as we effectively have), it is for the conspiracy theorists and loonies to back up their proclamations with hard evidence – but all they do is make up phrases like “magnetic memory field” and leave it at that. Linguistic colour may persuade a wide-eyed toddler, but no-one with even a remotely respectable brain cell should fall for it. These absurdities are dressed up in pseudo-scientific babble, doing harm to public intellect, the image of genuine science and, in extreme cases, the health and well-being of especially gullible individuals and their undeserving families.
I think these quotes, taken from a BBC article on the predicted ‘Rapture’ of May 21st 2011 (which, by the way, didn’t happen) by American Evangelist Harold Camping, are very telling of what I mean:
“The Washington Post reported that suicide prevention hotlines were set up in case believers fell into depression after the apocalypse failed to happen.“
““It was probably one of the saddest things that I’d ever read, the idea that there’s kids out there whose parents spent their college savings funds, who sold their homes,” one woman told the BBC.“
Wow. I will never understand just how a person can get so bogged down with useless information, to the point of making such harmful decisions for themselves and their children. Or how the lack of apocalypse turns people suicidal? It’s extremely sad that people waste time even considering such an out-there view of the world when there are much bigger things to worry about – like climate change, the genuinely impending fuel crisis, human rights violations across the globe, ad infinitum.
In short, this time at least, the world is not going to end. I will bet on it. If you’re sure it is I feel sorry for you, and for those around you who have to listen to it. Truly. I can understand escapism, and a private fantasy some may turn to; but is anyone’s life really so boring as to require the fabrication of a whole apocalypse? I sincerely hope not.
Call the ‘prediction’ what it is – nonsense. Then advise its spouters to do something more productive.
Have a nice week.
Carnun 
…
(I’m sorry this post wasn’t the longest, but there are only so many angles you can approach such an easy-to-dismiss topic. I hope you’re all reassured as to the overwhelming likelihood of continued existence. Enjoy living.)
