A year ago I published an article entitled '2102, Nostradamus, Mayan Calendar, Oh My! "The article is light-hearted look at the year 2012 and some of his ominous predictions. Pretty amazing that the article was picked up and published hundreds of web sites and blogs in the last 12 months and I constantly receive e-mails from readers and webmasters around the world, we call to write more about this rapidly approaching the year (it was also plagiarism to the point of absurdity). While the interest in my 2012 article was encouraging and flattering, I think the success of the piece actually suggests two simple realities:
1) As with all good doomsday scenarios, year 2012 does not have enough legitimacy to rise beyond fanatical thinking, which is giving him momentum and mystery, and
2) People have a fascination with stories related to the catastrophe and destruction, and the internet has become a vehicle that has moved this fascination into a full-blown obsession. Let's look at each in turn.
1) Legitimacy:
Among other associations and absurd and rational, 2012 were all associated with changes in the sun and the cycles of celestial bodies. Indeed, the Maya calendar (2012 Musings of which owe their origin) is primarily a measure of celestial and natural ciklusa.Drevni Mayans believed that all life essentially cyclical and that time is cyclical. Think about it (day and night), seasons, years, and so on, all have their roots in a cyclical movement: the Earth around its axis to create day cycles, and cycles of the moon around the Earth a matter of months, both at the same time cycle around the sun making years, and so dalje.Ljudsko body naturally cycles as follows: human pregnancy is cyclical, and even life follows the cyclic formula: birth, growth, maturity, decay, death, and again ... ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Time and reality will be cycles within cycles, believed the Maya and their calendar reflected this cyclical metaphysic.
, however, contemporary thinkers have been programmed to believe that the time and the reality of a linear flow - before yesterday, today, a day before tomorrow, etc. - and our orientation in life reflects this cognitive programming. While a linear orientation to time is useful and it certainly helps us manage our busy lives, it is argued that the Maya were closer to the truth: Time is important cyclical ... and this is repeated. Have you ever heard the saying that a broken clock is still correct twice a day?
What does this have to do with the sun and the year 2012? It will take some explanation ...
The sun is our source of life, the alpha and omega. Without the sun, life could not exist, period, so it is quite logical that created the mythology of primitive cultures to worship this great source of life. Indeed, the sun is the source of untold wonders: to walk on water (reflections), turns water into wine (out), heal the sick (fever), raises the dead (spring, regrowth), traveling with 12 companions (12 zodiac signs, and the source of your astrology), and even has a special place in our cognitive construct of the week (Sunday, a day of rest). In fact, most religious holidays are really the events of sun worship. Christmas is in honor of the rebirth of the sun after December step of the winter solstice is reached, Easter and Passover to recognize the sun 'passes through' mid-point in his ascent past the vernal equinox and the beginning of the harvest season (a great deal in primitive times), and so on.
and like all heavenly bodies, the sun - our source of life and the object of adoration and fear - follows the pattern of cycles within ciklusa.Drevni Mayans knew this, and we are only now learning it.
The sun is pulling out of the cycle the minimum activity and encouraging for what many say will be a solar event of biblical proportions. Without getting too technical, the sun follows the most predictable pattern of solar activity is the spots, these cycles is called the solar minimum and solar maximum and the flow on the 11-year cycle (there's that number again ...). Solar minimum is the time when there little or no sunspot activity, on the other hand, most of the time, a large sunspot activity. It is interesting that the next solar maximum is predicted to peak in the second half of the year 2102, corresponding surprisingly Mayan Long Count calendar cycle ends on the date 21.12.2012, the great age of Maya believed that he would end up in a cataclysm of fire. This maximum, according to many, will be one of the most spectacular record.
What is particularly interesting, and somewhat disturbing, that our Sun is pulling out of a long period of inactivity - the minimum that has scientists mystified and thoughtful observer. Could this be the calm before the storm? And if so, what would it look like the storm and how it will affect life on earth? Does the strange confluence of all these cycles (and I did not mention several other cycles, which end in the year 2012) suggest that the country is on the edge of the solar event of unimaginable proportions? It is well documented in the literature that sunspot activity affects the earth in ways that ... Are we in store for the season without the geophysical, geothermal and meteorological unpredictability? All ancient traditions, both orally and in writing, a story about the great cataclysm of water (such as Noah's flood); these traditions is actually a semi-coded warning for later generations to be on the lookout for the next coming of the Sun? Should we be concerned that the last Long Count cycle ends marked by a great flood of 2012 and completed the cycle was supposed to mark the change of light?
Finally, it is mere coincidence that the increase in blockbuster movies bizarre world of disasters related to solar events (The Book of Eli, 2012, knowing, roads, etc.)? Should we be worried?
2) obsession Doom:
We can say that the internet has become a pillar expressed sadness and instituted a range of our strange obsession with the fate of the order of magnitude. Indeed, this mania has become so deep into our world with each other that we are forced to create a word is characterized by people who share this collective obsession:. Doomers
and let's face it, 'dooming' is contagious. Like internet porn, his presence is everywhere and it is difficult to avoid. Not surprisingly, 2012 will appear as a doomsday storytelling choices, Pierce de resistance of end-of-World scenarios. It is not surprising, the allure of 2012 is a combination of its scale and diversity, as well as many traditions and mythologies suggest this as a significant milestone, as well as the collective realization that "something is wrong just '. 2012 comes at the right time in the evolution of our species as almost all agree that we are living through a time of great challenge and change. Previous predictions of the fall are just that - predictions fall on belief or probabilistic models (such as nuclear annialation or Y2K). 2012, however, not only about the apocalypse or disaster, it is about cleansing the world itself. 2012 is the ultimate come-uppins of Mother Nature, and, surprisingly, many people see this as a good thing, or at least only a well-deserved. like the mythology of large floods as the wrath of a vengeful God, cleansing the world of evil, many believe that have once again come full circle, or should I say the cycle. Thus, the growing popularity of 2012 as a year of great change, turmoil and purification.
beliefs in fate and dates are not new, of course, and they have been around as people have roamed the earth. Seemingly, such as gender, our love of extinction is hardwired into our DNA. In my short life I have (in my 40's) I had the pleasure of living quite comfortably in several foresee disaster of Y2K (what a disappointment!), To a nuclear holocaust ... of 88 reasons in 88 (widely believed prediction of the Assumption in 1988) to Hi-Bop and the much awaited return of our kind of alien parents, indeed, the list goes on and on. Not surprisingly, all these predictions have one thing in common, and it's obvious - they were all wrong. Ridiculously wrong. But that does not keep people from believing in them, sometimes fanatically.
but now an obsession with the Apocalypse and 2012 is different. Why? Since we now have the means and technology to proselytize our fears that the general public, and in the process of global stir the emotional pot of stew on a collective mania. Today, any idiot (or student for that matter) you can place a well-made, but fully assembled U-tube documentary about the arrival of Planet X (2012) and awaken the fear of millions. Before our interconnected world, the dates of doom and destruction were confined to groups that promote them, or a creative tool for their market, but have seldom been as widespread as they are today, except for a Y2K, they were never globally. And yes, I submit, is what makes the 2012 phenomenon so bad and why we should be taking it seriously.
But here is the fact that I want to think about: You're still here. Let me say that again, and I want you to read it slowly: I - Am - Still - Here! The fact that I am writing to you today about the dates and destiny should scream very clear and convincing truth to all of you who are worried about 2012: the odds in favor of
One day will actually be a global cataclysm, it is a statistical security. But suppose that happens in life is pure ego and the likelihood that it will happen in 2012 is less related to Maya mythology, and much more for the collective (and dim-witted) wishful thinking. So is history repeating? Yes I'm afraid that ... but no history of disasters. Instead of the history of human credulity, and predictability. We are 2012, and to the extent that we have decided to believe that a doomsday, we would be underequipped to handle a very real possibility that the world can be biking through the very real changes, changes that are survivable if you will just stop discomfort to fail and start balancing the reason readiness.
