The End of the World phenomenon is misinterpretation of Mayan thought. A new era unfolds starting December 21, 2012; a new long cycle begins.
Meanwhile, main stream media, news tabloids, prime time TV all have been pushing “End of the World” stories and commentary. Even as Western science readily refutes many aspects Mayan prophesy and “science”, the apocalypse narrative is repeated until the message becomes imprinted in our minds.
A poll done by Reuters in the summer 2012 showed that 10% of the World’s population believes that the Mayan calendar marks the end of the world.
The Mayan prophecy of renewal seems a far cry to what we are seeing everyday in the news cycles. The real World we live in is marred by economic, crisis with millions upon millions of people impoverished. We are inundated with bad news like, North Korea putting ballistic missile into space, mass protests in the Middle East, terror attacks, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, typhoons, devastating earthquakes, pandemic predictions, Chinese military expansion… I think you get my point, which is, the 21 century, so far has had a rocky start.
Hopefully, if it pans out that the Mayans had a “higher” knowledge of the workings of the universe than western scientists think, the Mayan prophecy of “renewal” will be a slower transition to times of peace and prosperity rather that a sudden apocalyptic event that would throw us back into the stone age.
Hope or Pessimism
“End of the world” believers are essentially pessimistic, they have ran out of hope, they see the world as something that needs a reset.
As for hope; my vision of the perfect world, a “renewed” world, a utopian society, is one where we have a “produce for need” society, as opposed the current one which is a “produce for profit” society.
In a “produce for profit” society there are winners and then there are losers. Some have a lot and many have next to nothing. In this type of society things will never get better. Capitalists may have to, at times, redistribute a little wealth to keep the masses happy, but essentially the few will get the profit and the majority will get the least while working the hardest.
In a “produce for profit” society, natural resources have to be exploited faster that our competitors are doing it. In a “produce for profit” society we have to keep regulation on the side of the profiteers, not the average person. In a “produce for profit” war is not a last resort but a lucrative business.
In a “produce for need” society, we wouldn’t measure wealth in terms of available capital or who has the most, but wealth would be measured by what we do, what we produce, how we contribute, it would be measured in how connected we are to our immediate society or community and what we pass on to our children and on how well we utilize and replenish the worlds natural resources, on how vibrant our society is.
A utopian pipe dream, maybe. This type of world is not impossible just highly improbable. The capitalist system has long been established; we don’t know any other way, the “utopian society” believers see no way forward and have no plan to reach the end of the rainbow.
So for now at least we are stuck with the system we have, even though it seems to be a failing and unsustainable system. We all know we can’t keep sucking up natural resources faster than we replenish them, and we all know we can’t keep borrowing and raising the debt ceiling, and we all know that arming terrorists is just stupid.
But humans are compliant, accepting, an easy sale, easy to brainwash, and slow to change, unless shocked into action.
The 2012 Mayan Prophecy: renewal or end of the world? Probably neither, at least it won’t happen overnight. The apocalyptic scenario will be a continued, long, slow decent into more global crisis and chaos.
And renewal, where does “renewal” start? In a universe of infinite circumference, every point becomes the center, so the best place to start is the center, with you.
Terrence Johnson is guest writer for TCRN
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
(Note: Opinion articles written by guest writers do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of TCRN)
