If the swine flu don't get me, 2012 will
Apr. 27th, 2009 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonPredictions of our imminent demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Repeatedly and throughout history.
I watched a show last night on the History Channel about the various predictions that the world will end in 2012. December 21, 2012, if you follow the Mayan calendar. This show's gig was all about showing how various prophets of doom from many different cultures . . . all predicted that 2012 is the year!
Of course, a certain amount of stretching and manipulation were involved to make these predictions One Size Fits All—but then, that's sort of the Prophecy of Doom game, isn't it? The late Terence McKenna apparently came up with some mathematical formula for the I Ching . . . that no one in history had ever noticed before! He concluded from this that the Mayans were right and 2012 is . . . The End!
The TV show dusted off the Prophecies of Merlin (Myrddin) from the 11th century, the fake prophecies of Mother Shipton from the early 16th century (actually written by some guy in the 17th, I think), John of Patmos (Mr. Revelations) who was actually writing about Emperor Nero and the political situation in first century Rome, and just to bring it home to the internet and technology . . . the Web Bot Predictions!
They all agree. We're all going to die . . . and soon!
You know, I'm a student of history and science so it's not like I don't know that sweeping and catastrophic changes can swamp a society and end it; that catastrophic planetary or interplanetary events can squish us like bugs. We are vulnerable and fragile creatures sitting on a vulnerable and fragile planet. Doom is infinitely possible. Probable, really, if you look at the BIG picture.
I realize all that and more can happen to us. I just don't believe any human being or group of human beings has a lock on predicting the future. I mistrust our fascination with predicting doom and with becoming mesmerized with patterns and twisting them to confirm our preconceived prejudices. We are very clever monkeys used to picking out and seeing patterns in nature. Sometimes that's our salvation and sometimes that our, well, yes, doom—at least our psychological doom.
(And just as I am writing this Asteroid 4179 - Toutatis from Holst's The Planets came up on iTunes. Funny iTunes! It must be a sign!)
Don't get me wrong: I believe a great many silly things. All my life I've had a cynic on one shoulder and a true believer on the other. As a for instance, the only thing that has sufficiently explained to me this psychological duality is that my Sun in Virgo is in perfect opposition to my Moon in Pisces. Many people find that a silly belief, I find it a fact of life.
But I don't, I just don't, buy into Predictions of Doom. Or more precisely, Predictors of Doom. The future is a mystery and infinitely changeable, depending on what we do with our individual lives at any given moment and how those individual lives effect the society at large.
Unless the Singularity or the Asteroid or the pandemic creeps out of the closet one night and mugs us in our beds. I guess we'll all know on December 21, 2012.
Repeatedly and throughout history.
I watched a show last night on the History Channel about the various predictions that the world will end in 2012. December 21, 2012, if you follow the Mayan calendar. This show's gig was all about showing how various prophets of doom from many different cultures . . . all predicted that 2012 is the year!
Of course, a certain amount of stretching and manipulation were involved to make these predictions One Size Fits All—but then, that's sort of the Prophecy of Doom game, isn't it? The late Terence McKenna apparently came up with some mathematical formula for the I Ching . . . that no one in history had ever noticed before! He concluded from this that the Mayans were right and 2012 is . . . The End!
The TV show dusted off the Prophecies of Merlin (Myrddin) from the 11th century, the fake prophecies of Mother Shipton from the early 16th century (actually written by some guy in the 17th, I think), John of Patmos (Mr. Revelations) who was actually writing about Emperor Nero and the political situation in first century Rome, and just to bring it home to the internet and technology . . . the Web Bot Predictions!
They all agree. We're all going to die . . . and soon!
You know, I'm a student of history and science so it's not like I don't know that sweeping and catastrophic changes can swamp a society and end it; that catastrophic planetary or interplanetary events can squish us like bugs. We are vulnerable and fragile creatures sitting on a vulnerable and fragile planet. Doom is infinitely possible. Probable, really, if you look at the BIG picture.
I realize all that and more can happen to us. I just don't believe any human being or group of human beings has a lock on predicting the future. I mistrust our fascination with predicting doom and with becoming mesmerized with patterns and twisting them to confirm our preconceived prejudices. We are very clever monkeys used to picking out and seeing patterns in nature. Sometimes that's our salvation and sometimes that our, well, yes, doom—at least our psychological doom.
(And just as I am writing this Asteroid 4179 - Toutatis from Holst's The Planets came up on iTunes. Funny iTunes! It must be a sign!)
Don't get me wrong: I believe a great many silly things. All my life I've had a cynic on one shoulder and a true believer on the other. As a for instance, the only thing that has sufficiently explained to me this psychological duality is that my Sun in Virgo is in perfect opposition to my Moon in Pisces. Many people find that a silly belief, I find it a fact of life.
But I don't, I just don't, buy into Predictions of Doom. Or more precisely, Predictors of Doom. The future is a mystery and infinitely changeable, depending on what we do with our individual lives at any given moment and how those individual lives effect the society at large.
Unless the Singularity or the Asteroid or the pandemic creeps out of the closet one night and mugs us in our beds. I guess we'll all know on December 21, 2012.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 09:07 pm (UTC)As for Mother Shipton, I have a copy and my copy happens to say, In ninetine eightyone the world to an end shall come. I believe in some very previous editions this was eighteen eightyone. How did they manage to make 2012 rhyme with come?
Yes, I would have a weird sort of book like that lying about. I am sun sign Aquarius and rising sign Leo in absolute opposition. My moon and mercury are also in Aquarius with Pluto grinning across the wheel at the sun.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 10:34 pm (UTC)Yes, I would have a weird sort of book like that lying about. I am sun sign Aquarius and rising sign Leo in absolute opposition. My moon and mercury are also in Aquarius with Pluto grinning across the wheel at the sun.
Woo! Lotta air and fire. I hope you have some earth somewhere to keep your feet planted. :-) I'm dominated by air and water, but I have that Virgo Sun and Mars in Virgo for grounding.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 12:12 am (UTC)I agree with your theories to an extent but I do not believe the actions of indeviduals will save the world or condemn it. It will probably be something like an earthquake that we had no control over.
Personally I am sick of those global warming people nagging at me and those people who wear face masks at the slightest sign of a cough disgust me. Life is fleeting why waste it worrying about how it ends.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 12:23 am (UTC)I agree with your theories to an extent but I do not believe the actions of indeviduals will save the world or condemn it. It will probably be something like an earthquake that we had no control over.
Yeah, if it's something big like an asteroid strike, we don't have any control over it. But nations are composed of individuals and if enough individuals get on the bandwagon over issues like (ha) global warming and war, they can bring about real change in a society. But it's so damned hard to get people to row together on any issues. Everyone wants to go their own way.
Life is fleeting why waste it worrying about how it ends.
Well, I certainly agree with you there: whether there's a grand apocalypse or not, we're all facing our own personal apocalypse. So worrying about death does rather cheat you out of your life. Life is for the living.