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I want my Tulane degree to mean something. I want “to be able to do something with it.” In order for that to happen, the world must not end in 2012…
While the election of a black U.S. president, the economic crises for healthcare, cars and homes, and the spike in celebrity deaths might raise alarm in a particular brand of American, a select minority believes these observations point to the end of days when civilization breaks down and the Earth explodes… and we all die a horrible, horrible death. It’s a modern luxury to believe we know when we’re going to go. The thought of being the last generation out is certainly a hypothetical situation to entertain.
Physics, information and technology all play a part in contemporary doomsday predictions. It’s all CERN’s fault. That international union of science nerds is responsible for the World Wide Web and the Large Hadron Collider. From ignorant speculation about these two things, an infinite number of irrational fears arise. Perhaps Wikipedia, the sum of all human knowledge, will become sentient and form a revolutionary robocracy. Maybe continuous atom smashing will create a death hole or an antimatter death explosion.
Incidentally, Isaac Newton’s predictions were theologically derived. He wagered that the Second Coming would occur no earlier than 2060. Maybe his methodology wasn’t perfect, but his search was sincerely for his own understanding of the universe; “the end” was beyond his own time, and he seemed to be at peace with his prediction. Even Michel de Nostredame didn’t care for his revelations, other than the fact that he became filled with transcendent knowledge. Nostradamus didn’t set a date himself, but doomsday experts’ fabricated interpretations of his elegantly cryptic French quatrains tie his predictions to 2012.
The Mayans “thought 2012, too.” Their calendar supposedly ends in 2012, assuming they’ve been in sync with the Gregorian calendar. This premise leads to the $200 million film, “The Day After the Day After Tomorrow” coming out this November.
The History Channel is thriving on these fears. We can see both definitions of “hysterical.” For the viewer who needs to kill time, it’s like watching Fox News for laughs. However, a select audience instantly believes the most extreme positions presented to them. Social criticism, the implicit intention of Nostradamus, is just something some people don’t get, or something they choose to ignore. By setting his commentaries to the future, Nostradamus avoided persecution from his contemporaries. But now we look at all of his works in retrospect, neglecting the author’s purposes and cultural context.
The French seer made references to “iron cages” rolling down the “Hister,” a section of the lower Danube River. Thoughts about World War II might come up. While this makes sense, it requires plenty of mental manipulations through metonymy for it to mean anything, and that meaning wouldn’t have made sense in its original context. And one really vague prediction talks about “a city burning… a ruler slain… people weeping.” We won’t be able to prevent these from happening, but if it happens, supporters would say Nostradamus predicted it.
When enough things come true, a pattern forms, and people pay attention to things that fit that pattern.
It’s a conspiracy! By the way, it’s an insult to science to refer to people as “conspiracy theorists.” A theory is a set of observations that ought to be true most of the time. At best, doomsday statements can be classified as untestable hypotheses. Perhaps we are on the eve of destruction based on baseless evidence.
We’ll just have to wait ‘til the time comes, December 12, 2012 (12/12/12, Triple 12, Doomsday), to see who’s wrong.
A.J Balatico is a sophomore in Newcomb-Tulane College. He can be reached for comment at abalatico@tulane.edu.
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Everybody can relax. The entire 2012 doomsday is a house of cards, built on nothing more than some new-agey woo-woo philosophy and a fundamental misunderstanding of the Maya. They didn’t predict anything for 2012, their calendar doesn’t end, they probably didn’t care about the solstice, there are no alignments, we’re not going to be clobbered by a comet or buzzed by a rogue planet. It’s all complete nonsense.
See 2012hoax.org for a point-by-point refutation of the entire thing.
“The Day After the Day After Tomorrow” coming out this November………..Not ! Has been out quite awhile.
your thinking of the movie named ” 2012 ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVi_2lHBVhQ
release date Nov 13th i think. Looks like awesome movie.
Myself I have been trying to hitchhike outta here from any friendly aliens. Just havn’t found any yet.
Better safe then sorry i say.
Correct url for youtube trailer is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyCCd8MCcZY
one i mentioned below is dif 2012 movie i think. But this one is correct.
^That was probably a joke, that you, D. Everson, didn’t get. Roland Emmerich, the guy who produced 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, is such a tool and a waste of money. You can’t make a good movie just with “cool special effects.”
The term, “meaningful coincidences” - refers to what Carl Jung called: “The Synchronicity Principle” - where unrelated events can come together in ways that defy our common sense notions of cause and effect.
http://plus.maths.org/issue51/reviews/book1/index.html
Based on personal experiences shared with senior researchers at Princeton University, School of Applied Science, this is their reply:
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE
C-131 ENGINEERING QUADRANGLE
P.O.BOX CN5263
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08544-5263
FEBRUARY 8, 1993
Dear Mr. De Laurence:
Thank you for sharing the description of your “meaningful coincidence” with us. It is an EXCELLENT example of connectedness between the subjective and objective domains of human experience, mediated by the symbolic language of numbers.
In a very real sense, as was recognized by Pythagoras and his successors, this symbolism lies at the root of all science, including even the contemporary, whereby the human mind seeks to interpret in some tangible and communicative mode the intuitive insights gained from observing nature.
The error lies in our FORGETFULNESS of the origin of these symbols.
Sincerely,
Brenda J. Dunne
Laboratory Manager
So, I wrote it up, had it published by my local newspaper, went on tv, radio, did all sorts of things, and finally realized, … I was just chasing
my-tail….
No one wants the truth, perhaps, as Jung said - “consciousness is too frail; it is menaced by specific dangers, and easily injured.”
Anyway, it this case, it may be best not to know….
Minor correction: the end of the Mayan calendar is Dec 21 2012.
Certainly the 2012 meme has become a gigantic tangle of misinformation. Ignore any “facts”, for it is all speculation. The Mayans only once predicted what would would occur, and it was only a couple of sentences regarding “the nine gods will descend”. However the myths regarding the end of their previous eras are all about the world and humankind ending…
The big question remains - why that date? Did they just pull it out of a hat, or should we be wary just in case?
The big question remains - why that date? Did they just pull it out of a hat, or should we be wary just in case?
Why that date indeed, there is more to the real 2012 story than is easily found. The answer is <be wary just in case … why else is it being blasted from every corner?