Okay, no-one panic, the world’s not ending in December…

I feel sorry for the Mayans. They develop a calendar, which takes some doing, and yet when their calculations apparently stop, a bunch of people think that the end of the world has been predicted. It’s very specific – the world either goes kablooey or undergoes radical transformation in December this year. It must be true, books have been written about it.

Of course, it’s actually cobblers. As with any end of the world scenario that sets a specific date it runs the risk of being overtaken by events. It reminds me of a Christian bookshop I frequented, which had a small section of books based around ‘interpreting’ biblical prophecies – apparently Saddam Hussain was going to be the antichrist, or the world would end once the EU reached 13 members. Now the memory of that shelf is kind of sad – books that had been overtaken by history, yes, but also books that had become a part of history, a history of getting the apocalypse wrong, and the socio-political-religious factors that underpinned these particular interpretations.

Anyway, a 2012 end date was the fashionable theory in pop eschatology, but guess what? An archeological expedition in the jungles of Guatemala has uncovered a mural created by the Mayans. And on this mural are calendar calculations stretching way beyond this year, thousands of years into the future.

What’s interesting is that the article refers to different mindsets when it comes to this sort of thing – the Mayans were more concerned with continuity, while our society, with its Doomsday 2012 books and constant headlines about ecological, social or economic collapse, seems more interested in catastrophe. Maybe that’s tied up with how we see history – the chief influences on the West talk about history as progress (intellectual, social) and/or history having a distinct end point (such as the Book of Revelation, and it’s interested to note that, of all the various interpretations of biblical prophecy, the one that has the greatest hold on us is the one that’s most catastrophic… But hey, at least all this has given me some ideas for my Bible blog…)

So the world’s not going to end in December, at least not because the Mayans predicted it. We can go on thinking about Christmas presents and New Year parties. It would be optimistic to say we can put the whole 2012 thing to rest, but we can at least give the Mayans a break…

Some Uninformed, Unscientific and Ever So Slightly Belated Predictions For 2012

A disclaimer: I am not a soothsayer, futurist, prophet or a deductive genius. This may surprise regular readers of this blog but I can be but honest. The eventual accuracy (or otherwise) of these predictions will not be the result of supernatural powers. Instead they will be the result of me being very, very clever:

2012 will be a year of transition
2011 was the year that the world was bitten by a radioactive spider; 2012 is when it makes a costume and decides whether to fight crime or rob banks. 2013 will be when we start to see what a changed world looks like.

Facebook does a Myspace
A combination of ubiquity breeding boredom and concerns over privacy results in FB starting to fizzle out. It’ll still be around, but other forms of social networking will steal its thunder.

Another economic meltdown
Total no-brainer – the system is broken, only held together by magic beans and sociopathy. Something’s gonna give.

The Avengers breaks box office records
But The Dark Knight Rises is the better film.

Political turmoil in the US
Obama will hold on to power, but his involvement in things like NDAA and the right-wing devolving into lots of crazy people with guns means that a new, unexpected force arises in US politics. This may or may not be a good thing.

The mother of all internet poopstorms
SOPA or Anonymous or something else entirely leads to the Internet being shaken to its core and battlelines being drawn. This one will be won by the Digital Natives, but it’ll have nasty political consequences.

More protests with serious consequences
I pray I’m wrong about this, but I think there will be deaths arising from the police treatment of protesters in a Western nation. It’ll be dressed up in political rhetoric too. I hesitated to include this one, but maybe if enough people raise the spectre, increased awareness will prevent it from happening.

Scientific squinkiness
The Large Hadron Collider discovers something really weird.

A new British sporting hero emerges from the Olympics
Probably another no-brainer but that’s all my sporting knowledge will commit to.

The world won’t blow up in December
In your face, Mayans!