Final New Years?

It's approaching the end of the year, nearly every radio station manager has forced their top DJs to compile their lists of 2011's top songs, the news stations have compiled and aired their best and worst moments of the year and everyone is trying to come up with their new year's resolutions. And I find myself looking at the new year as possibly being the last year in human existence.

I don't really believe in the supernatural, I don't believe that there are outside entities watching or controlling our lives. I don't believe that there is anything that has shaped our existence except for the ever powerful forces of nature. However, I still find myself looking at the Mayan Long Count calendar and how people have assigned the end of our world to the end of this calendar designed by a civilization hundreds of years virtually extinct.

The Mayan calendar appears to end on our standard calendar on December 21, 2012. Movies, books and word of mouth have turned this date into a fearsome time. I put as much stock in this theory as I do in the idea that four horsemen are going to find four corners on a sphere and wreak havoc on the entire population through magic. The Mayans were very in tune with the cosmos and were able to figure out some complicated principles with rudimentary knowledge and tools and decided to make their own life easier by forecasting the future stages of the moon and sun and stars. Why did they end it when they did? I generally think that their scholars felt that they went far enough into the future that they didn't need to continue. It was far enough in advance for them that if they were wrong, they would be long dead. It was far enough in advance that the people around them didn't have to worry but it gave a sense of impending doom which is always useful in controlling the masses.

In the 1950's before computers and such, if the American government decided to make a calendar, they would've planned it far enough in advance that they could plan their future goals and know with precision when they planned on finishing their projects. Whatever random day they decided to stop counting, would we consider it the end of the world? Probably not, the American government, although sneaky and conniving is far from mysterious, unlike the Mayans.

So, as we look at the upcoming 2012, I look at December 22 as the day that comes after the 21st. But there is still a little sense of mystery in it. It will be interesting to see the hype that gets built up over the next 350 days and how the world deals with it.

Those of you in the States, if you are really concerned when you wake up on the 21st, just look on facebook or on here and I'll confirm to you that it passed without any problems since it will already be the 22nd for me.