Unfortunately though, I think - much like y2k - this is simply another episode of humanity's obsession with its own demise. I mean, it's only been the obsession of mankind since, well, probably 4000 years ago and one of the major factors in the propagation of religions which still have a stronghold now. It's always about the day, God or his trusty son descend to earth to judge its people and to take those worthy and leave the sinners/unworthy behind to perish in the acts of the apocalypse.
So much for loving thy sinner and hating thy sin(s), right? Those vengeful, egoistic motherfuckers. (Heaven's Gate anyone?)
But really, much of the ideas behind 2012 extend from seemingly prophetic messages of the ancient past, but as "civilized" humanity tends to do with everything - naturally it's all mainly misinterpreted and more hysterics than actual. One of the main factors is the purported end to the Mayan calendar, as some claim it to be. However, it does not simply end, but it is an end indeed - to a long count which has done so for approximately 5100 years. It doesn't stop. It counts back to zero.
So, why the hysterics/significance? Well, in truth, the Mayans actually did conceive one of the most accurate forms of time, but much about the basis of its construction is still up to subjective interpretation. But what is relatively certain is that the Mayan people were undoubtedly quite the mathematician's and astronomers and so the fact that the "faithful day" happens to also coincide with two very-precise celestial events, its significance seems to have been bloated.
But before delving into the actual events of that point in time. Lets briefly explore other theorized conclusions to our existence:
- A rogue planet/star will enter our solar system - eerily donned Planet X - and it will either collide with the planet or just in case that calculation is complete bullshit: particularly a Brown Dwarf will pass so closely to Earth that it will reverse the poles, which if violent enough could tear everything as we know it apart (not true) and if not, it would expose us greatly to solar events. And guess what? It just so happens solar storm activity is predicted to peak again around 2012. Furthermore, if it's gravitational effects on Earth are too strong, it could pull us from our orbit around the sun into the abyss of space, thus losing our main means of survival.
- A celestial object is going to hit the Earth according to Nostradamus. Ironically (as noted in the provided link) the same quatrain was applied in 1999 which probably inspired the two films Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998). But according to that "source" they had it all wrong then, but NOW it's right..the whole 1999 thing he just knew we'd find it. Of course!
- Assorted human conflicts (wars, nuclear bombings) coupled with a wave of natural disasters, including greater famine, plagues, etc.
Many of the ties to the above concepts are simply all doomsday prophecies - or at least what can be interpreted as such - and actually not at all directly tied to the Mayan's or their calendar. In fact, the main two premises of which to base these concepts are Nostradamus and The Book of Revelations.
Nostradamus in particular has quite a reputation and undoubtedly drawn both the ire and curiosity of humanity for the better part of 500 years. People have attributed some of his writings (quatrains) to predicting much of the worlds major events both long beyond his death and actually during his lifetime as well, almost all of which have been in hindsight. Isn't that sort of like the person in the room watching Jeopardy who says "Oh! I knew that!" even though they never actually uttered even a word of the answer? Nostradamus is certainly fascinating and it's actually fun to read into, but when you really break it down, his purported foresight has done nothing for the world but validate catastrophic events after the fact. You can probably attribute that to the fact that there are not only hundreds upon hundreds of them, but they're also written in multiple languages, vaguely and with an abundance of metaphors that really could mean anything.
That doesn't sound like someone trying to warn the world of catastrophe, does it?
The "Book of Revelations" isn't significantly different but is arguably a bit more straight forward. Regardless though, it's a mere addendum to the bible with the sole intention of materializing the concept of Christ's return to the Earth at the end of time, which began upon his death. So, this is circa 2000 years of waiting in the making. Nostradamus has some kind of allure to it, whereas this masterpiece is merely just the sort of happy ending the earlier bibles were lacking: God decides to finally destroy sin and Satan (after all this time? C'mon man...what the fuck have you been doing all this time that was more important?) and all of the worthy people make the ascent into paradise while those left behind endure death and destruction.
I'm sure that has nothing to do with scaring people into believing, either.
Realistically though, there are certain things which do coincide with 2012 that are pretty interesting, but probably aren't divine or wrought, nor could they be conceived as such at the time they were potentially understood, if they even were at all. There will be an semi-rare planetary transit, that will have the path of Venus crossing before the sun which will be visible from many (but not all) parts of Earth (in June, not December). Another factor, though it has been insanely misinterpreted is a galactic alignment between the Sun and the center of the Milky Way. Well, if by center they mean the massive black-hole which creates the "spiral" of the galaxy, then yes, they're right...and from our perspective, that also happens every year (question 11).
The other aspect, which could be debated for an eternity, is the fact that the calendar actually ends on a solstice. The technology junkies we are today, almost unanimously suggests that there is almost no possible way they could have made such an accurate scale to predict that with such precision. To begin with they would have had to know the preceding events for as much the span of time they were even going to be calculating. That seems relatively impossible to have had for the time-frame. However, I also refuse to believe it's completely impossible they could have done it. As the egoists we are when it comes to ancestry, I think we oft praise the few whose discoveries were so monumental they're used today whilst undermining the more primitive ones which do not seem applicable, but because we do so, does not necessarily make it so , either. So, by some chance, they may have found a way...but no one will ever truly know because much of their documents were destroyed and then only pieced together thereafter. So while it's possible they could have done it (to me), it's also equally possible this has all been contrived by "modern man" from the remains of their civilization and has absolutely no realistic value at all, except what we found to be applicable.
The other aspect is the aforementioned cyclical solar storm maximum, which occurs approximately every 11 years. However, even to this day, the cycle is merely approximate and relatively unpredictable to actual points in time. In fact, due to a seemingly irregular minimum in this cycle, scientists are being led to believe it's possible the Sun may not reach its maximum until 2013 or beyond in this cycle. Also, even when the sun does in fact reach the maximum period, that doesn't necessarily translate to disaster either, although truthfully disaster always looms within these periods. If for some reason one were to overwhelm our atmosphere (magnetosphere) or penetrate it enough, it could cause blackouts and destroy much of our electronic devices...but generally speaking that would be the extent of it (still devastating to the modern world). But it's a lot more likely they could disturb or destroy objects orbiting space and potentially cause them to plummet to the Earth below, but even that isn't likely to happen within the year, as is seen with many debris in space, it takes a bit of time for them to descend to a point of free-fall.
It's all very interesting to look at and read about, but at best, it's science fiction and at worst, it's total bull shit that has almost no proof whatsoever. But what can be said with some certainty, is that the world will probably be different in 2012, but it's because of humanity now and not because of the foresight of the bible, Nostradamus or the Mayans, at least not in the ways above, what humanity does with it is another story altogether.
