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Saturday 31 December 2011

Don't Believe The Hype

So here it is.  2012.

Yep, the 21st century is well under way.  Before you know it the current hundred count is going to be a teenager:- Hopefully a less stroppy one that last year which resulted in the full blown tantrums of World War I (If this is the case, surely World War II was caused by the century's early onset of a middle aged crisis but now the metaphor is being stretched beyond logical comprehension) and the Russian Revolution.

Some people - more than a sane world should contain - believe that the Mayan calender stops at a point comparable to the later end of our own 2012, thus marking the end of civilization due to one or several cataclysmic events occurring, from major flooding to a previously undiscovered planet crashing into our own like Dawn French outside a pie shop that closed early.

The idea that this particular year will be humanity's last is not ridiculous in itself:- After all ANY given year could be our big finish.  However one has to doubt that if we do get drowned/blown up/shipped off to become alien sex slaves, it will be because some chaps in strange nappies and animal hats declared it over five thousand years ago.

Many people who are concerned that the Mayans were spot on the money seem a little uninformed, citing sources such as 'Jen from works' cousin' to another awful Roland Emmerich weather-porn movie.

The Mayans created several calenders denoting what are now academically referred to as the precalassic, classic and postclassic eras.  The ending of these basically meant the people of pre-Colombian America considered a particular period of time the end of a cycle or 'world age' and the onset of another.

The point?  Don't stop paying buying those lottery tickets and stocking up on booze and shotgun shells just yet.

The idea that the world is going to end because a timetable ran out is a bit 'pie-in-the-sky'.  However if you still find yourself a bit concerned then remember that it's quite likely that the Mesoamericans only stopped bothering making calendars because builders of the day kept complaining that there were no tits on them.


5 comments:

  1. my calander for 2011 ended on december the 31st and i started to panic like a fudging loonie. then i realised the whole human race is a moron and carried as normal because even if the world is about to end, there naff all i or anyone else can do about it.

    ps - does the world need more tits? hm... one for the big wigs to answer me thinks.

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  2. It still amazes me that the whole Mayan Apocalypse got so popular. I hung out with A TON of hippies in college--they were nuts with the Mayan prophecies. They were nice people, and I admit the Mayan zodiac is kind of fun 'cause there are 260 birth signs rather than 12, but the end of the world? because they didn't feel like laying out a calendar into infinity? Not sure about that one....

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  3. Well Mitch, that's even ore info. Did not know about the 260 birth sign thing. Kinda makes one think that if they'd'a spent less time on birth signs and more time on not being wiped out, then maybe they wouldn't have been...well...you know...

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  4. Ah well they sacrificed themselves for our entertainment!
    http://www.blixtsystems.com/downloads/dreamspell-calculator/

    It calculates the date for the dreamspell calendar, which is different from the "actual" Mayan calendar, but for the purposes of just having the craic looking up your birth sign I don't think it really matters....

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  5. Well...I came up as a Red Resonant Serpant or summat..! Anyone else?

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