Kontroversial Keith

12-21-2012: The Great Disappointment

It’s a week now with 12-21-2012 having come and gone. Apparently, we all physically survived the imminent end of the Mayan Calendar, what people for the last few years had been predicting as the apocalypse. Once again, prophecies were not fulfilled. Despite all of this hoopla, many people were lured into the belief that the physical end of days were actually upon us.

Why is that?

I believe that the truth lies in that our world sucks. Plain and simple. Just like people wanted “change” when Obama first got elected president, people wanted something to happen. Anything. People will always believe what they want to hear or see. But they still want this utopian/dystopian fantasy to manifest because our world sucks.

All the interpretations of what apocalypse meant had varied so drastically. For instance, the classic interpretation was that some mysterious planet X (also called Nebiru) would show up out of nowhere and wipe us out. Some say that Nebiru also caused the dinosaurs’ extinction. People conjectured that our lack of funds in having more eyes in the sky would prevent us from seeing Nebiru showing up.

Other interpretations were that some alien race would appear on our doorstep and annihilate us or take control. Something like Stargate the movie. Maybe they would conjure a black hole or wormhole that would guide a meteor or earth-like planet to show up.

Of course, we also saw the movie 2012’s vision where catastrophe would strike as a result of the earth going through tsunamis, earthquakes, etc. While there have been catastrophes in recent years, it seems more like the norm but not as a result of a particular date.

At any rate, there were many who used the event to celebrate. Of course, once the smoke cleared the other interpretations of that date began propagating. Now, it was more just simple mathematical error or the arrival of a new calendar. Either way, it’s all hokey pokey nonsense, business as usual.

When I talked briefly with my friend about the situation, he then brought up another event for 2013 that’s now predicted via a computer. So here we go again. Placing our bets on a particular day. What happens when once again that day comes and goes? What does this all prove?

For me, it proves that humans just rationalize what they want to because we’re all miserable. We put all our faith in ideologies and irrational constructs by taking coincidences and putting them together as opposed just recognizing/admitting that things suck and we just have to accept the cards dealt in front of us.

Personally, I wanted to look at the event differently. Everyone has some sort of doubts, myself included. You want to take certain mental precautions in case something does happen. In my case, I felt that in knowing the actual day when the world was supposed to end, I decided to treat myself a little better. Maybe enjoy a few things I normally wouldn’t because I tend to worry too much about the future. In short, I decided to live for the present.

Is just living for the present the only way to live? Of course not. You do want to plan for some things like having children, a family, buying a home, your retirement, etc. At the same time, you can’t predict the future. You never know when some great piece of fortune can strike you one day or misfortune hits you the next. My life is a perfect example of this constant battle.

Yet this whole experience just reinforced what I’ve had a hard time learning over the past few years. You can’t dream the future up and feel entitled that it should happen for you. You have to look what’s right in front of you and deal with that. It’s a hard pill to swallow especially if you’re like me (someone who is a hopeless romantic).

So from now on, I’m just going to do what I’ve been doing with most of the Big Media: ignore it. It’s just noise that makes for speculation and entertainment. Unfortunately, it’s negative entertainment or what I call anxiety entertainment.

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2 responses to “12-21-2012: The Great Disappointment”

  1. michael Avatar
    michael

    I was thinking a bit like you, and i was thinking about the dissapointment that some people had with 21-12-2012.You see, in our present world there is no official presents of a higher power, whatever that might be. There are stories which, most of them old, telling us about a God or Gods, about Strange skypeople and about higher powers which we do not know in our present days. And if something happens on a certain predicted day, it would prove that there is more than we know, even if you give up your life. However, through translations and misunderstandings probably we do not know what the mayans actually predicted, and it doesnt mean that certain events will not happen in a near future or a couple of hundreds years from now.
    The thing is that no one should need such an event to prove that out there something is waiting more than life itself.
    It is the lack of belief that brings dissapoitment, the belief that often longs for spirituality while expecting the total destruction of the material world.

    1. keithyw Avatar
      keithyw

      That’s the problem about blind faith. But what happens when that day arrives and nothing happens? People tend to shut up pretty quickly. Others somehow manage to rationalize the event not occurring with math, speculation, etc. Bottom line is that you can’t predict the future and you have to live for today.

      The shameful thing is how certain parts of our society will attempt to manipulate those who are gullible into their schemes. I remember that one radio evangelist about two years ago who also predicted the end of the world. He managed to con people out of their life savings. When the day didn’t arrive, he justified it by saying his calculations were wrong. Wait, but he’s an evangelist. How can he calculate something?

      It’s really infuriating hearing about such things. But the only way to really handle it is to use a noise filter. The thing is with the internet, there’s so much white noise being generated these days that you have to know when to ignore certain aspects. Or you can easily go crazy.

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