by Sean McCabe
Here we are, it’s 2012 finally, the year many folks have been dreading. The world is going to end in December. After all, it’s the end of the Mayan calendar, December 21, to be precise. Doomsday movies have been made based on this prediction, to capitalize I suppose on the prevalence of doomsday anxiety.
However, say the Mayan scholars, it’s a false prediction. The end of the Mayan calendar does not mean the end of the world, just the end of a cycle in history. A new page in civilization, they assure us, will begin on December 22, 2012, or thereabouts. Out with the old, in with the new.
My research into all this, as I’m sure you can tell, has not gone any deeper than browsing through articles on the subject in between checkings of my email. When I do see articles about the 2012 prophecy, I start thinking, however.
The occultist, end of the world types are certain the world is about to end. Look at all the earthquakes and tsunamis we’ve been having recently, they say, not to mention hurricanes and extended droughts. Isn’t this what was foretold: an increase in natural disasters to accompany the last days?
And then of course there’s the impending collapse of the western economies that economic experts in the media keep warning us about, what with the Eurozone debt crisis in Europe and Republicans and Democrats not being able to agree in the US… one could go on and on, and add a religious dimension too. We have gotten so materialistic in the west to the point where we have turned our backs on God; therefore God has turned his back on us (I saw a preacher say this on YouTube).
One quick answer to this last point for me anyhow, is not so much that God has turned his back on us; but that big corporations have sent jobs that should remain in America oversea, all with the profit motive. A lot of people have been hurt by globalism, but definitely not managers of big corporations. Greed always seems to get in the way of general human progress. I think that people who think only in terms of monetary profit are people who have turned their backs on God.
Anyhow, back to 2012.
The whole world just feels to be very unstable these days, when you look at it from a political, economic or environmental standpoint. Maybe if there was less media in our faces all the time—for example, can we avoid checking the latest headlines when we check our email? I can’t.
A few years ago, I read a newspaper maybe twice a week and didn’t watch much TV. Now, thanks to my need to stay cyber connected, I’m a news junkie. There’s no getting away from the media in today’s world. My advice for the new year (to myself anyway) is to keep the cell phone and computer turned off as much as possible; when working on the computer, pick up the guitar while on a five minute break, instead of checking the mail or the news, and stop twittering…
Maybe I can make my own mind up on things then… And as for 2012 being the end of the world as we know it? I’ll answer that in my January 2013 column. Have a great 2012!
| Next > |
|---|
