Why hello fans of Fixated Infuriation!
It's that time for my biannual post to this blog, just a few months early.
No, it's not because I'm trying to beat the date of December 21, 2012, but more that it FINALLY is 2012.
After many years of movies, television shows, specials, documentaries, internet blogs, videos, and water cooler talk, there is no question this is substantially the most anticipated year in recent history since the year 2000. Of course, the world was supposed to have ended back then too. It didn't, for obvious reasons I don't have to explain.
But it's here. The year of the Mayans!
Now what?
I'm sure this will be the same question asked everyday for about two weeks AFTER December 21, 2012. When January 1st, 2013 FINALLY arrives, all of the 2012 hoopla will be over COMPLETELY. Heck, it may even end on December 22nd, but no matter what if nothing happens by that dreaded day, you can bet there will be a lot of explaining to do for why so many bought into this hype.
For one, all that stuff in the mass media I just mentioned above. There's been a movie depicting every possible apocalyptic scenario in that one film that grossed nearly 800 million dollars back in 2009. That compounded by the countless other melodramas that were birthed by this phenomenon, that hardly made any money at all, and Hollywood has spent literally billions suckering us into the theatres to witness "the end." I Am Legend and the aforementioned 2012 were just a couple specifically aiming at "2012" as the year of "the end", but a bevy of end times films, documentaries, and TV shows have come out all along the way as well. Knowing, any of the Resident Evil movies, The Darkest Hour, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Skyline, Zombieland, The Book of Eli, The Happening, Wall-E, Terminator: Salvation, Life After People, Earth 2100, The Road, Legion, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 remake), and The Walking Dead are some of the most note worthing in the last few years to acknowledge the 2012 phenomenon theme....humans on the brink of extinction.
The real question to be asking here is why are we so fixated on the end? I've brought this up before I am sure, but it bears repeating. Why do we want to possibly face our own demise? Is it simply because we're all in the human condition, or I should say the life condition, which ultimately leads to death? The other night I had to kill a roach bug with bug spray and watched the life force slowly trickle out of it's body second by second. First it put up a fight the gradually it slowed and slowed and slowed until only a sputter remained before whatever life force it had was completely gone. I've witnessed the same thing when a bird of mine died a few years ago, which was just as gut wrenching to watch. These things were alive just as much as I am and something caused it's demise unexpectedly.
That, at least to me, is the essence of the 2012 phenomenon. It's the possibility of a total unexpected end for us all at one time. What would it be like? How could it happen? Is there anything we could ever do to prevent it? In the case of this bug, there wasn't. Was it because the bug was too inept to prevent it's own demise? Hardly, it could have ran away once it saw me enter the room. But, I was determined to get rid of it and did everything in my power to dispose of it quickly and efficiently without having to soil my shoes.
I've compared human civilization today to that of an infestation, much like roaches can be, or even to a virus. We've spread ourselves out even more since I first posted that comparison way back in 2008, heading for the 7 billion mark for the population of the entire Earth for the first time in history by sometime this summer, if not by December 21, 2012. But as I said before, we're spreading ourselves out, and wearing our resources thin. So what happens if the powers that be decide suddenly that we're a plague that needs to be wiped out? We're annoying, vile, disgusting creatures that aren't fit to live? They might just as soon poison us as step on us so as to not dirty themselves up in the process. For whatever reason, we don't deserve to live. And who would the powers that be actually be? Well, it could just be the Earth itself.
The Earth only seems like an object, but it's as alive as we are. It reasons in a way that we could never understand. We came from it and if it so desires that we no longer exist it can do a pretty good job of wiping us out all on it's own. Take 75,000 years ago in Sumatra. The Toba Eruption, as it was called, reduced the human population of the planet down to only a 1% difference in genetic composition, meaning hundreds of thousands of humans died out due to this epic eruption that was strong enough to blast an island in two. Hmmm, I wonder if there's anything TODAY that could do that? Look no further than the movie 2012 for the answer. Yellowstone National Park.
My favorite part of this film is the Yellowstone Caldera eruption. Although I hardly believe the eruption in the film did justice to what the actual eruption could be like, it did at least give you an idea of the damage that could be done. What was humorous in the film is that somehow any other disaster would have to happen after that. Yellowstone erupting as a supervolcanic explosion would be more than enough to set the world back for decades upon decades without the dramatics of Los Angeles falling into the Pacific or a Polar Shift causing a world wide flood. There is so much lava underneath Yellow stone it could bury the entire continental United States in 6 feet of ash twenty times over, and still keep going. It literally would be the end of the world if that volcano ever erupted, at least as we know it today.
You see, Yellowstone HAS erupted before and yet the Earth is still here. Yellowstone is like a giant pimple filled with puss on a teenager's face. When it pops, the mirror gets covered. But, how often does a teenager get one of those kinds of pimples. Maybe once or twice a year? Put that on a geological time scale and a couple of times a year could be six times in millions of years. Which is exactly what has happened at Yellowstone....and we're over due for another pop!
But, again, an imminent eruption on a geological scale could be the next 100, 1000, 10,000 years, or next week. We just don't know. But the leftovers do tell us that it has happened and will happen again, and it will vastly change things worldwide.
What does this have to do with 2012? Well, it was in the movie, and scientists say it could happen anytime. I love the pseudo-religious way "anytime" is used with any context pertaining to possible "endings" for any human, even on the individual level. It's almost as if we should all live life either in dread of the future or hoping for death to whisk us away to a far, far away place of safety.
I have a better interpretation, and it's straight out of the bible, spoken by Jesus himself: don't worry about tomorrow. I believe I've brought this up before.
From my perspective, nothing is going to happen in 2012...except maybe for record tourism profits for Belize and the entire Mayan region. My reasons for nothing happening....I have two of them. Their names are Abby and Charlie, my children. They deserve the same right to grow up and older as I have and no Mayan, Nostradamus, Edgar, DaVinci, John, or Jesus himself is going to tell me their lives will just end because someone supposedly predicted it thousands of years ago. I believe Jesus would say, "They'll end when they end."
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
New World Order
A friend of mine introduced me to something the other day I honestly never heard of. And it sits only about a little over an hour away from my hometown.
It is known as The Georgia Guidestones.
Now, it's hard to imagine something this significant ever being built in the state of Georgia, but it's there and has been since the late 1970's. Completely finished 5 days before my 3 birthday, on March 22, 1980, this structure stands as a testament to reason.
It lays out 10 guidelines, not commandments like in Moses time, that illustrate the importance of what humanity has been, should be and potentially could one day become...and probably will. Having never heard of this before I decided to research it and find out more about it's construction, where it is located and of course any other information people may have about it.
It was first commissoned by a man named Robert C. Christian, which is readily identified as a pseudonym or alias. The man claimed to be Christian and wanted to create a lasting impression for future generations, with the purpose being for the longevity of humanity. The structure is made of granite with four stones going into the four cardinal directions, North, South, East, West, a central stone and cap stone that some have said weighs 25,000 lbs. Much like Stonehenge in England, the structure stands in the center of an empty field and is welcome to any visitors to come and see. There are security cameras now since the stones have been vandilized in recent years due to conspiracy zealots citing "New World Order" propaganda and everything from the "Anti-Christ's Commandments" to "Death to Smoochie!" Doesn't matter where you go, these people can't be avoided. Especially in the Bible Belt, with pastors citing the end of the world, Revelations, and that anything created by humans being of...THE DEVIL!
But what the structure does represent, in the event of a major worldwide calamity, these stones coud potentially be used as a guide for reconstructing human civilization in the wake of such a disaster. Now, with apocalyptic scenarios abounding due to circumstances such as coments, meteors, solar eruptions, super volcanoes, and of course the 2012 Mayan "prophecies" this structure fuels the fire of the desperate who WANT to see a change in this world because they don't like the way things are now. So there are two extremes for the conspirators: Those for it and those against it. The people in between are too busy dealing with life to care about some rocks in Elberton, Georgia.
But what the message engraved into the stones says it what is more intriguing to me. The 10 guidelines, if taken in the context of a world utterly decimated by some calamity, make sense. If taken as the world is now, yes it could be misinterpreted as a prelude to something Nazi-like. That's why I wanted to learn more about them. I've found out that all 10 commandments are written in 8 different "modern" languages (meaning still in use): English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian (which coincidentally represent languages from 8 of the major religious sects of our world, and 8 has long been considered God's number, which is infinity turned on it's side). Also engraved into the capstone of the structure is the following message: "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason." The message is not what is interesting, but that the message is written out on top of the cap stone in four ancient (dead) languages: Babylonian Cuneiform (North), Classical Greek (East), Sanskrit (South), and Egyptian Hieroglphics (West) (Essentially the languages of the once great civilizations of the past who have all met untimely ends).
So you basically have 5 stones that act as a warning to future generations. One stone contains the language of 4 dead civilizations (excluding the one that once was the Roman Empire because technically that civilization still exists, just in a different form--the Dark Ages are the cut off of the Roman Empire with the world of today since the Renaissance, and Roman Latin, a derivative of Greek Latin, inspired the Romance languages of Europe, as well as Asian and eventually the English language we use in the United States today, so it still is very much in use). The rest of the stones are written in "modern" lanuages, derivatives of Roman, and are inscribed witht he following 10 guidelines in succession:
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion, faith, tradition, and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth, beauty, love, seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the Earth. Leave room for nature. Leave room for nature.
Now these are some very impressive guidelines and the intent to me from just reading over them is not that some evil totalitarian government means to use these guidelines as a ploy to sucker punch the world, all the while building an elaborate stone structure in the middle of nowhere Georgia to tell the whole world their intentions. Of course conspiracy theorist would say that this is the best ploy to dupe the world, by their plans out there in plain sight. I disagree, however. I consider it a warning.
There are any number of ways this could be a warning, but a few spring to mind. The designer of this message intended to convey a since of urgency in a world on the verge of spinning out of control. Consider the times. The late 1970's, and indeed the entire decade of the seventies was a tumultuous time for all. Governments seemed hell bent on stopping the spread of political regimes they considered wrong. Vietnam had only ended a few years earlier, with great loss of life on the part of the United States. The population explosion was well under way. This called for more and more land needed to house so many more lives, further depleting the resources available to nature itself. Human beings were spreading out across the globe in a cancerous-like format and still are today. Courts were unjust, and still are, laws were worthless, and still are, officials were even more worthless, and believe it or not they have gotten worse. But the gravest concern of all at that time, the continuing stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War Arms Race, that seemed destined for nuclear annihilation.
The person that thought this up saw all of this and considered the possibility, "What if our civilization comes to an end very soon? What if billions die for that cost? Where or what could they turn to for hope that humanity might still go on?" This structure allows for a defunct or destroyed civilization to find it standing tried and true for hundreds if not thousands of years, and provide them with measures to restore civilization in a manner that could prevent the same events from ever happening again. Every civilization on Earth, every single one, has collapsed and rendered humanity helpless with no other recourse but to start over...except one. The current and last civilization that has existed since Christ walked the Earth. Is it possible our current civilization could come to an end by our own means? Absolutely! Will it happen soon? Potentially. Could we recover? Probably not from a nuclear war, but other calamities, yes because we have. We've survived everything the Earth has dished out over the last 2 millions years of our existence, but the one thing we can't survive is our own over indulgence in things we probably SHOULDN'T indulge in. That is the message's intent and desire simply to guide humanity to a place where it can survive for as long as humanly possible. The structure provides an accurate compass, clock and calendar for humanity to decipher once again.
The other avenue of a warning can bring science fiction into the mold. Suppose Robert C. Christian was from the future? Perhaps he has already witnessed the events that lead to the formation of these guidelines in the first place? Now that puts a whole new spin on what is to come if that were the case. Yes it's far fetched, but how do we know? In the age of conspiratoriality, we don't know anything for sure. It's all theories and guess work.
More than likely though, the first warning is what applies and it should be heeded. Scientists claim that the Earth's natural resources can only sustain 10 billion human lives. Currently, the population of the Earth would exceed this mark long before the year 2100. As resources run out, war, famine, plague, and death would ensue. But that's only if we actually reached the year 2100 with the world as it is now. You would have to include political regimes, wars prior to such an event, astronomical events that could "impact" us, perhaps even the Wrath of God Himself.
No one knows what the future holds and any prediction is just a guess. But one thing is for certain, something has to change. How is the real question? The year 2012 is only 2 years away from the fabled date of December 21st. Will that be the day? Will something happen long into the future, long after I am gone and become something my children have to endure? Change is a difficult process and sometimes it costs lives in order to fulfill it. Our world has become complacent and set in its ways. We don't value life as much as we value living. There comes a time where living must mean we cherish the lives we have and not over indulge in that which is unimportant to sustain it. But again, how do you do it?
With warnings like The Georgia Guidestones, it's inevitable we will find out.
As for a "New World Order", sorry conspiracy fans, we already live in one. You're efforts are too late and your misguided claims only help to fuel their mission further, by keeping it alive. Instead of smudging something up that can last longer than your graffiti, maybe you should actually read the message first. Of course, what can you expect in Georgia anyway?
It is known as The Georgia Guidestones.
Now, it's hard to imagine something this significant ever being built in the state of Georgia, but it's there and has been since the late 1970's. Completely finished 5 days before my 3 birthday, on March 22, 1980, this structure stands as a testament to reason.
It lays out 10 guidelines, not commandments like in Moses time, that illustrate the importance of what humanity has been, should be and potentially could one day become...and probably will. Having never heard of this before I decided to research it and find out more about it's construction, where it is located and of course any other information people may have about it.
It was first commissoned by a man named Robert C. Christian, which is readily identified as a pseudonym or alias. The man claimed to be Christian and wanted to create a lasting impression for future generations, with the purpose being for the longevity of humanity. The structure is made of granite with four stones going into the four cardinal directions, North, South, East, West, a central stone and cap stone that some have said weighs 25,000 lbs. Much like Stonehenge in England, the structure stands in the center of an empty field and is welcome to any visitors to come and see. There are security cameras now since the stones have been vandilized in recent years due to conspiracy zealots citing "New World Order" propaganda and everything from the "Anti-Christ's Commandments" to "Death to Smoochie!" Doesn't matter where you go, these people can't be avoided. Especially in the Bible Belt, with pastors citing the end of the world, Revelations, and that anything created by humans being of...THE DEVIL!
But what the structure does represent, in the event of a major worldwide calamity, these stones coud potentially be used as a guide for reconstructing human civilization in the wake of such a disaster. Now, with apocalyptic scenarios abounding due to circumstances such as coments, meteors, solar eruptions, super volcanoes, and of course the 2012 Mayan "prophecies" this structure fuels the fire of the desperate who WANT to see a change in this world because they don't like the way things are now. So there are two extremes for the conspirators: Those for it and those against it. The people in between are too busy dealing with life to care about some rocks in Elberton, Georgia.
But what the message engraved into the stones says it what is more intriguing to me. The 10 guidelines, if taken in the context of a world utterly decimated by some calamity, make sense. If taken as the world is now, yes it could be misinterpreted as a prelude to something Nazi-like. That's why I wanted to learn more about them. I've found out that all 10 commandments are written in 8 different "modern" languages (meaning still in use): English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian (which coincidentally represent languages from 8 of the major religious sects of our world, and 8 has long been considered God's number, which is infinity turned on it's side). Also engraved into the capstone of the structure is the following message: "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason." The message is not what is interesting, but that the message is written out on top of the cap stone in four ancient (dead) languages: Babylonian Cuneiform (North), Classical Greek (East), Sanskrit (South), and Egyptian Hieroglphics (West) (Essentially the languages of the once great civilizations of the past who have all met untimely ends).
So you basically have 5 stones that act as a warning to future generations. One stone contains the language of 4 dead civilizations (excluding the one that once was the Roman Empire because technically that civilization still exists, just in a different form--the Dark Ages are the cut off of the Roman Empire with the world of today since the Renaissance, and Roman Latin, a derivative of Greek Latin, inspired the Romance languages of Europe, as well as Asian and eventually the English language we use in the United States today, so it still is very much in use). The rest of the stones are written in "modern" lanuages, derivatives of Roman, and are inscribed witht he following 10 guidelines in succession:
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion, faith, tradition, and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth, beauty, love, seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the Earth. Leave room for nature. Leave room for nature.
Now these are some very impressive guidelines and the intent to me from just reading over them is not that some evil totalitarian government means to use these guidelines as a ploy to sucker punch the world, all the while building an elaborate stone structure in the middle of nowhere Georgia to tell the whole world their intentions. Of course conspiracy theorist would say that this is the best ploy to dupe the world, by their plans out there in plain sight. I disagree, however. I consider it a warning.
There are any number of ways this could be a warning, but a few spring to mind. The designer of this message intended to convey a since of urgency in a world on the verge of spinning out of control. Consider the times. The late 1970's, and indeed the entire decade of the seventies was a tumultuous time for all. Governments seemed hell bent on stopping the spread of political regimes they considered wrong. Vietnam had only ended a few years earlier, with great loss of life on the part of the United States. The population explosion was well under way. This called for more and more land needed to house so many more lives, further depleting the resources available to nature itself. Human beings were spreading out across the globe in a cancerous-like format and still are today. Courts were unjust, and still are, laws were worthless, and still are, officials were even more worthless, and believe it or not they have gotten worse. But the gravest concern of all at that time, the continuing stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War Arms Race, that seemed destined for nuclear annihilation.
The person that thought this up saw all of this and considered the possibility, "What if our civilization comes to an end very soon? What if billions die for that cost? Where or what could they turn to for hope that humanity might still go on?" This structure allows for a defunct or destroyed civilization to find it standing tried and true for hundreds if not thousands of years, and provide them with measures to restore civilization in a manner that could prevent the same events from ever happening again. Every civilization on Earth, every single one, has collapsed and rendered humanity helpless with no other recourse but to start over...except one. The current and last civilization that has existed since Christ walked the Earth. Is it possible our current civilization could come to an end by our own means? Absolutely! Will it happen soon? Potentially. Could we recover? Probably not from a nuclear war, but other calamities, yes because we have. We've survived everything the Earth has dished out over the last 2 millions years of our existence, but the one thing we can't survive is our own over indulgence in things we probably SHOULDN'T indulge in. That is the message's intent and desire simply to guide humanity to a place where it can survive for as long as humanly possible. The structure provides an accurate compass, clock and calendar for humanity to decipher once again.
The other avenue of a warning can bring science fiction into the mold. Suppose Robert C. Christian was from the future? Perhaps he has already witnessed the events that lead to the formation of these guidelines in the first place? Now that puts a whole new spin on what is to come if that were the case. Yes it's far fetched, but how do we know? In the age of conspiratoriality, we don't know anything for sure. It's all theories and guess work.
More than likely though, the first warning is what applies and it should be heeded. Scientists claim that the Earth's natural resources can only sustain 10 billion human lives. Currently, the population of the Earth would exceed this mark long before the year 2100. As resources run out, war, famine, plague, and death would ensue. But that's only if we actually reached the year 2100 with the world as it is now. You would have to include political regimes, wars prior to such an event, astronomical events that could "impact" us, perhaps even the Wrath of God Himself.
No one knows what the future holds and any prediction is just a guess. But one thing is for certain, something has to change. How is the real question? The year 2012 is only 2 years away from the fabled date of December 21st. Will that be the day? Will something happen long into the future, long after I am gone and become something my children have to endure? Change is a difficult process and sometimes it costs lives in order to fulfill it. Our world has become complacent and set in its ways. We don't value life as much as we value living. There comes a time where living must mean we cherish the lives we have and not over indulge in that which is unimportant to sustain it. But again, how do you do it?
With warnings like The Georgia Guidestones, it's inevitable we will find out.
As for a "New World Order", sorry conspiracy fans, we already live in one. You're efforts are too late and your misguided claims only help to fuel their mission further, by keeping it alive. Instead of smudging something up that can last longer than your graffiti, maybe you should actually read the message first. Of course, what can you expect in Georgia anyway?
Monday, December 29, 2008
Why worry about 2012?
As some of you might know, I have written a fictional account of how the world could possibly end in the year 2012. I entitled my novel The Civilization Loop. The story depicts a current day world where time travel is now possible. Now, because of a top secret contingency plan, this epic and awe inspiring event in the story of being capable of traveling through time, is kept utterly secret from the public by the powers that be. The reason? Well, exactly how would you explain to someone the world is going to end in less than four years? A burden to say the least.
Ultimately, this disaster ensues, but not at a time people would be looking for it to occur. In my story, the final date of time is 5 May 2012. That actually was a goof on my part because I didn't study enough prior to encorporating the supposed Mayan End Time into my story. I had no idea people were pinpointing an exact date, such as 21 December 2012, and time, 11:11 AM. The point in the story that I did realize this was after I had already written about ten chapters of the book. No way was I going back and changing all those dates. So that gave me an epiphany, that I actually wrote into the story itself.
NOTHING HAPPENS 21 DECEMBER 2012 AT 11:11 AM!
You see, in writing my story, I was really making a satirical commentary about prophecies, "End Time" claims and people naming dates. What I wanted to do was have a date that was specific, encorporated other dates I had heard and ultimately rebuke the so called "End Time" scenarios of 2012. Nostradamus predicted cataclysmic events occurring somewhere in the vicinity of May 1988, or at least that is what people that interpreted his claims suggested. They were wrong! Later it was pushed back to 2000, since there was so much ferver about Y2K, a polar shift with planetary alignments, polar ice, magnetic fields, ozone, and maybe a panty liner thrown in. Again, nothing happened, even with a specific date of 5 May 2000. I was slated to graduate college then, but that didn't happen either!:)
Now, these same Nostradamus predictions are being applied to 2012. Are people really so eager to see the world end that they are going to keep buying into this movement? Now, I'll say this, there are any number of ways the world could end on 21 December 2012. With asteroids, comets, meteors, solar flares, the sun could go nova, a supernovae, blackhole, dark matter, gamma ray bursts, depolarization of all matter; human made catastrophes such as nuclear holocaust, terrorism, biological warfare, super viruses, and so forth. Any one of those things could happen on 21 December 2012 and end life as we know it. But here's the catch, any of those things could happen on 29 December 2008 too, and end all life as we know it. It's unlikely with only a few hours left in the day, but not impossible. Somehow I think we'll all wake up tomorrow morning unscathed.
The new trailer for the film coming out in November of 2009, entitled 2012, has a good catch phrase. "How would the governments of our planet prepare six billion people for the end of the world? They wouldn't." Aside from the fact there will probably be seven billion people in 2012, that statement is spot on! That coincides with my book's fictional hypothesis that the governments of the world would more than likely keep any devastating, cataclysmic event secret because how would you maintain order if everyone knew they were going to die tomorrow? I could certainly see telling people days, weeks or even months leading up to the event, but otherwise it would cause chaos for years to come and more than likely we would kill ourselves off in the process.
Those are the two things I want to touch on now. 1) the date and time. I know a good philosophy to follow for this, if Jesus doesn't even know, how arrogant are we to think we can figure it out? Jesus liked to use cryptic language to disguise many things he said. But I have a feeling the Date and Hour Unknown section was probably spot on with what he actually meant to say. However, hindsight is 20-20 and if Jesus could have a do over, he probably would have never said anything about the end of the world. People are absolutely fixated on it! They can't get enough of it! From movies, to television shows, to documentaries, human beings collectively love to focus on endings. It's a negative connotation that degrades and takes away from what the words of the Bible or any other uplifting text (such as your local Hallmark card) tries to evoke. Spiritual awareness is highly important and if you don't believe in God, I suggest you really do some soul searching. Not because the world is going to end, but because one day your own personal world will. We all die, that's inevitable. A battle between good and evil takes place within us all everyday, it's continuous and only ends the day we die. What happens after that is up to your faith and only you can decide what you believe there. But, again, if you could find out the date and hour of your own death, would you really want to know?
For me, I wouldn't. I would want to live my life and know that one day it will finally catch up with me, but at least I lived and loved all the days prior to that. I think even Jesus would agree with that one, as would most religious followers, spirtualists, messengers and prophets. So don't worry about the date, it doesn't matter!
I would trust the date of 21 December 2012 and time of 11:11 AM about as far as I could throw it! Frankly, the Mayans were not trying to say the world would come to an end that day. They simply were trying to figure out the essence of their own existence, at that time. Remember, these were people that sacrificed LIVE HUMAN BEINGS! And I'm not talking when they were 80 either, more like my age now at 31! I guess I would be a little fixated myself if I knew I could be stabbed through the heart and burned to death any second! But that doesn't mean they thought the world was going to end today, tomorrow, 2012, 3797, 2,000,000 A.D. or trillions of years from now (although the last one might be possible).
2) what would cause the end of the world?
As I mentioned, there are numerous ways the entire planet could end. But, people frequently say "end of the world." That is a generalized statement for humanity's world, not the planet. As George Carlin once said, "The Earth isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!"
The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. There is absolutely no question that with all the pounding it has taken with comet impacts, meteors, gamma ray bursts, sun spot activity, solar flares, "The Snowball Earth", and an assortment of other things unmentioned or unknown, the Earth is one tough cookie. And we think a few pollutants, overpolation, Polyflorocarbons, plastics, styrofoams, and such is going to kill it? I really didn't like the new Day the Earth Stood Still with the over emphasized and dramatized "Save the Earth" propoganda. I'm sure Al Gore would be proud of this movie! The only thing that is in endanger, according to the things I have just listed, is human civilization. The Earth itself is alive, but it has seen it's share of mass extinctions. Two hundred fifty million years ago, almost all life was extinguished by some type of event. Sixty-Five million years ago, the dinosaurs were wiped out because of a comet, meteor, or some other type of event, that lead indirectly to the rise of us. Now, we are far more capable of adaptation than previous species, but we can orchestrate our own demise.
In my book, time travel does us in. Everytime someone jumps to the past, a shift in time occurs. This shift, depending on how far back you go in time, can alter things at the microscopic level. But, if you go way back, say to the time of the dinosaurs, the effects can be farther reaching. Such as having the meteor that hit the Earth in the time of the dinosaurs miss completely. Think about the effects that would have on our future? Sure, dinosaurs would probably be extinct anyway, but so would a lot of humans, who's ancestors were eaten by dinosaurs that lived a few million years longer. Or our genetic makeup could be different. We could all be more reptilian. As a result, a paradox is forged. When the time travelers return to their time, time itself sets on a course to wipe not only us out, but the entire known universe. Who's to blame? WE ARE!
The problem essentially with where we all are today is discovery. We discover new and improved ways to do things, but don't fully understand the mechanisms of how they work before we do them. To quote Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, "I'll tell you the problem I have with what you're doing here. It didn't require any discipline to attain it. So you don't take any responsibility for it. You followed in the footsteps of geniuses and before you even knew what you had you patented it, and packaged it; you slapped it on a plastic lunch box and now you wanna sell it, YOU WANNA SELL IT." He went on to say, "What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world." Obviously he is a bit of an environmentalist, but I think I've made my point with his quotes.
Human beings do not adapt to their environments as much as they infest. They shape and mold the world the way they want it to be, then complain when that shaping causes problems. As twisted as this is, humans are really like a virus. But, as with any virus or aliment a human has, what doesn't kill the Earth simply makes it stronger. The Earth needs us as much as we need it, it's a symbiotic relationship. There are many things we can provide the Earth with that previous species were totally incapable of doing. This may be why they became extinct in the first place.
So what do I believe the future holds? Well, with that last statement I just made, I believe there will one day be a great awakening where human beings will come to finally understand their place in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it will lead to a universal understanding or a oneness with God, but that's the future. Right now, we have to resolve our own differences first if we ever hope to attain this enlightenment.
They say this generation that is living today could be the one that sees the end of the world. Many people have tried to predict it or have lent interpretations to others statements as prophetic predictions for our time, but no one knows that for sure. My generation has as much right to live to a great old age as the ones that came before me and so do the ones after me. Because the truth is, that "generation" won't be determined to be the last one until something actually happens. Hopefully, that will be a long long time. My greatest fear though, is in our postulating and impatience, our over indulgence in biblical prophecy or the occult, listening far too much to documentaries, movies and television and not enough to that inner voice that can guide us on the appropriate path, human beings may create their own demise simply because they started believing it would happen. You know what they say about a man that thinks he'll die tomorrow, some way, some how he'll make it happen. Let's just hope we're a little wiser than he is!
Have a Happy New Year and don't miss the movie 2012 this November, the 13th to be exact. I'm sure it will be a special effects extravaganza, from the "Master of Disaster" that brought us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich. Until next time, think about today and let tomorrow take care of itself!
Ultimately, this disaster ensues, but not at a time people would be looking for it to occur. In my story, the final date of time is 5 May 2012. That actually was a goof on my part because I didn't study enough prior to encorporating the supposed Mayan End Time into my story. I had no idea people were pinpointing an exact date, such as 21 December 2012, and time, 11:11 AM. The point in the story that I did realize this was after I had already written about ten chapters of the book. No way was I going back and changing all those dates. So that gave me an epiphany, that I actually wrote into the story itself.
NOTHING HAPPENS 21 DECEMBER 2012 AT 11:11 AM!
You see, in writing my story, I was really making a satirical commentary about prophecies, "End Time" claims and people naming dates. What I wanted to do was have a date that was specific, encorporated other dates I had heard and ultimately rebuke the so called "End Time" scenarios of 2012. Nostradamus predicted cataclysmic events occurring somewhere in the vicinity of May 1988, or at least that is what people that interpreted his claims suggested. They were wrong! Later it was pushed back to 2000, since there was so much ferver about Y2K, a polar shift with planetary alignments, polar ice, magnetic fields, ozone, and maybe a panty liner thrown in. Again, nothing happened, even with a specific date of 5 May 2000. I was slated to graduate college then, but that didn't happen either!:)
Now, these same Nostradamus predictions are being applied to 2012. Are people really so eager to see the world end that they are going to keep buying into this movement? Now, I'll say this, there are any number of ways the world could end on 21 December 2012. With asteroids, comets, meteors, solar flares, the sun could go nova, a supernovae, blackhole, dark matter, gamma ray bursts, depolarization of all matter; human made catastrophes such as nuclear holocaust, terrorism, biological warfare, super viruses, and so forth. Any one of those things could happen on 21 December 2012 and end life as we know it. But here's the catch, any of those things could happen on 29 December 2008 too, and end all life as we know it. It's unlikely with only a few hours left in the day, but not impossible. Somehow I think we'll all wake up tomorrow morning unscathed.
The new trailer for the film coming out in November of 2009, entitled 2012, has a good catch phrase. "How would the governments of our planet prepare six billion people for the end of the world? They wouldn't." Aside from the fact there will probably be seven billion people in 2012, that statement is spot on! That coincides with my book's fictional hypothesis that the governments of the world would more than likely keep any devastating, cataclysmic event secret because how would you maintain order if everyone knew they were going to die tomorrow? I could certainly see telling people days, weeks or even months leading up to the event, but otherwise it would cause chaos for years to come and more than likely we would kill ourselves off in the process.
Those are the two things I want to touch on now. 1) the date and time. I know a good philosophy to follow for this, if Jesus doesn't even know, how arrogant are we to think we can figure it out? Jesus liked to use cryptic language to disguise many things he said. But I have a feeling the Date and Hour Unknown section was probably spot on with what he actually meant to say. However, hindsight is 20-20 and if Jesus could have a do over, he probably would have never said anything about the end of the world. People are absolutely fixated on it! They can't get enough of it! From movies, to television shows, to documentaries, human beings collectively love to focus on endings. It's a negative connotation that degrades and takes away from what the words of the Bible or any other uplifting text (such as your local Hallmark card) tries to evoke. Spiritual awareness is highly important and if you don't believe in God, I suggest you really do some soul searching. Not because the world is going to end, but because one day your own personal world will. We all die, that's inevitable. A battle between good and evil takes place within us all everyday, it's continuous and only ends the day we die. What happens after that is up to your faith and only you can decide what you believe there. But, again, if you could find out the date and hour of your own death, would you really want to know?
For me, I wouldn't. I would want to live my life and know that one day it will finally catch up with me, but at least I lived and loved all the days prior to that. I think even Jesus would agree with that one, as would most religious followers, spirtualists, messengers and prophets. So don't worry about the date, it doesn't matter!
I would trust the date of 21 December 2012 and time of 11:11 AM about as far as I could throw it! Frankly, the Mayans were not trying to say the world would come to an end that day. They simply were trying to figure out the essence of their own existence, at that time. Remember, these were people that sacrificed LIVE HUMAN BEINGS! And I'm not talking when they were 80 either, more like my age now at 31! I guess I would be a little fixated myself if I knew I could be stabbed through the heart and burned to death any second! But that doesn't mean they thought the world was going to end today, tomorrow, 2012, 3797, 2,000,000 A.D. or trillions of years from now (although the last one might be possible).
2) what would cause the end of the world?
As I mentioned, there are numerous ways the entire planet could end. But, people frequently say "end of the world." That is a generalized statement for humanity's world, not the planet. As George Carlin once said, "The Earth isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!"
The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. There is absolutely no question that with all the pounding it has taken with comet impacts, meteors, gamma ray bursts, sun spot activity, solar flares, "The Snowball Earth", and an assortment of other things unmentioned or unknown, the Earth is one tough cookie. And we think a few pollutants, overpolation, Polyflorocarbons, plastics, styrofoams, and such is going to kill it? I really didn't like the new Day the Earth Stood Still with the over emphasized and dramatized "Save the Earth" propoganda. I'm sure Al Gore would be proud of this movie! The only thing that is in endanger, according to the things I have just listed, is human civilization. The Earth itself is alive, but it has seen it's share of mass extinctions. Two hundred fifty million years ago, almost all life was extinguished by some type of event. Sixty-Five million years ago, the dinosaurs were wiped out because of a comet, meteor, or some other type of event, that lead indirectly to the rise of us. Now, we are far more capable of adaptation than previous species, but we can orchestrate our own demise.
In my book, time travel does us in. Everytime someone jumps to the past, a shift in time occurs. This shift, depending on how far back you go in time, can alter things at the microscopic level. But, if you go way back, say to the time of the dinosaurs, the effects can be farther reaching. Such as having the meteor that hit the Earth in the time of the dinosaurs miss completely. Think about the effects that would have on our future? Sure, dinosaurs would probably be extinct anyway, but so would a lot of humans, who's ancestors were eaten by dinosaurs that lived a few million years longer. Or our genetic makeup could be different. We could all be more reptilian. As a result, a paradox is forged. When the time travelers return to their time, time itself sets on a course to wipe not only us out, but the entire known universe. Who's to blame? WE ARE!
The problem essentially with where we all are today is discovery. We discover new and improved ways to do things, but don't fully understand the mechanisms of how they work before we do them. To quote Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, "I'll tell you the problem I have with what you're doing here. It didn't require any discipline to attain it. So you don't take any responsibility for it. You followed in the footsteps of geniuses and before you even knew what you had you patented it, and packaged it; you slapped it on a plastic lunch box and now you wanna sell it, YOU WANNA SELL IT." He went on to say, "What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world." Obviously he is a bit of an environmentalist, but I think I've made my point with his quotes.
Human beings do not adapt to their environments as much as they infest. They shape and mold the world the way they want it to be, then complain when that shaping causes problems. As twisted as this is, humans are really like a virus. But, as with any virus or aliment a human has, what doesn't kill the Earth simply makes it stronger. The Earth needs us as much as we need it, it's a symbiotic relationship. There are many things we can provide the Earth with that previous species were totally incapable of doing. This may be why they became extinct in the first place.
So what do I believe the future holds? Well, with that last statement I just made, I believe there will one day be a great awakening where human beings will come to finally understand their place in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it will lead to a universal understanding or a oneness with God, but that's the future. Right now, we have to resolve our own differences first if we ever hope to attain this enlightenment.
They say this generation that is living today could be the one that sees the end of the world. Many people have tried to predict it or have lent interpretations to others statements as prophetic predictions for our time, but no one knows that for sure. My generation has as much right to live to a great old age as the ones that came before me and so do the ones after me. Because the truth is, that "generation" won't be determined to be the last one until something actually happens. Hopefully, that will be a long long time. My greatest fear though, is in our postulating and impatience, our over indulgence in biblical prophecy or the occult, listening far too much to documentaries, movies and television and not enough to that inner voice that can guide us on the appropriate path, human beings may create their own demise simply because they started believing it would happen. You know what they say about a man that thinks he'll die tomorrow, some way, some how he'll make it happen. Let's just hope we're a little wiser than he is!
Have a Happy New Year and don't miss the movie 2012 this November, the 13th to be exact. I'm sure it will be a special effects extravaganza, from the "Master of Disaster" that brought us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich. Until next time, think about today and let tomorrow take care of itself!
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