What (exactly) is supposed to happen in 2012?

Great Debates
1

I was at the movies recently and I saw the previews to the new movie coming out some time this month called 2012. It’s another apocalypse type movies about the end of the world or something like that. It got me to thinking…what exactly is supposed to happen in 2012? And what are they basing the predictions for what is supposed to happen on (besides bullshit and hype)?

I know where the psudo-scientific nutjobs and crystal huggers are getting the supposed dates from…but where are they getting the predictions of the events from? I realize that ‘they are making it up’ is probably the correct answer, but is there any supposed predictions or writings describing what is supposed to happen? Also…Nostradamus. How does he factor in? I only started hearing supposed prediction from ole Nicky recently. Is this the Nostradamus crowd trying to cash in, or has there been some new predictions found in some lady’s attic, or a new, stunning translation rolled out recently?

It’s getting so that you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some new movie, prediction, psudo-documentary, etc etc on nearly every one of the broadcast stations I watch (History Channel, DSC, TLC…even on Animal Planet and the Science Channel if you can believe that!). Any day now there is going to be a 2 hour special on the Military Channel discussing the military ramifications of the 2012 ending of the world, and probably something about it mentioned in those ‘Trade us your used gold’ commercials any day now.

-XT

2

The 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth is on April 15, 2012 and there’s going to be a big party in Pyongyang. I need to make my plans… when exactly in 2012 is it supposed to end? :smiley:

3

You may be thinking of the Mayan calendar. In popular culture it is thought that this predicted that the world would end in 2012. It doesn’t. From Wiki

4

I think the OP knows all that. He’s asking where that interpretation of the calendar comes from.

5

I first saw it in some psuedo-science book I read about the pyramids (might’ve been Chariot of the Gods, but I don’t remember) in the early 90’s, so the idea has been around at least that long. The idea there wasn’t specifically an apocalypse though, but just some sort of mystical world changing event (pyramids opening and showing humanity some ancient alien knowledge, in that specific book). I think the idea of 2012 being apocalyptic came later.

6

The universe has a teleological attractor at the end of time that increases interconnectedness, eventually reaching a singularity of infinite complexity in 2012, at which point anything and everything imaginable will occur instantaneously, so that’s cool, I guess.

7

Cracked did an article about it.

8

I saw a poster for the movie a while ago while out with my son. He explained what it was about:

“They found a Mayan calendar that ends in 2012 so someone decided that the world will end then. Too bad they didn’t find a Mayan Pirelli calendar from 1970.”

9

YouTube showed me that some folks believe there is a rogue planet that is set to collide with the Earth on 2012.

The fact that a moon sized body (or bigger!) would have long since been located by now is meaningless to these folks…

10

Some also claim that Nostradomus also predicted the world would end in 2012, but one can make anything they wish out of the jibberish that Nostradomus wrote. They (after the fact) translate Hister to mean Hitler etc., I asked in an earlier thread whose Dec. 12th of 2012 day should we pick as some countries will have that date before us. California will not have 2012 come in until a couple of hours before new York city. Perhaps on December 13th the Prophets will have to explain a differnet reason why it didn’t happen.

It is like the fundalmentalists who think Jesus is coming again soon, or try to make it happen, even though Jesus is quoted by Matthew in chapter 16 as saying he would return with His angels in Glory while some standing there would not see death until it happens. As I see it there are no people who were standing there 2,000+ ears ago still living ,so either he didn’t say it, or was wrong,or conning the people.

Many prophesies are after the fact and can be intrepreted to mean different things to different people.

11

So after some further reading, here’s the line of events regarding the evolution of your Mayan apocalypse theory, coming soon to theaters near you:

In the late 60’s, a (reputable) Mayan scholar decodes an inscription saying “something will happen” (the language is vaguly apocalyptic sounding, but not explicitly so) at a date equivalent to 2012 (he revises the date several times over the course of a few years as scholarship on the Mayan calandar evolves, but settles on 2012). This date corresponds to the end of a cycle on the Mayan calender, but more modern scholarship has since suggested that, at least for some city-states, the Mayan Calender stopped cycling in the modern era. This site has some fascinating (but long) slide-shows explaining the current scholarship behind the date, if your interested.

In the late 70’s, some new-agey type folks starting with the previously mentioned Jose Argüelles latch onto the date as the time for their own pet (generally non-apocalyptic) cosmic events (aliens arrive, pyramids open, crop circles…do whatever they do, etc). It becomes popular to link ones own method of calculating crazy cosmic dates to 2012, so soon not only the Mayans, but also the “timewave”, the Hopi calendar, the Iching, etc. are all “discovered” to reveal crazy but unspecified events to go down around Dec 2012.

In the mid-80’s, “alternative cosmologist” John Jenkins decided that the date would be the time the equinox intersects the galactic equator (both the equator and the sun are fairly broad, so you can probably defend any year over a several decade period as the date where this will happen). He claims this will lead to the usual new-age cosmic events of world peace, etc.

In 2006, the History Channel airs Decoding the Past - Mayan Doomsday Prophecy. This is loosely based on Jenkins work, but adds an apocalyptic tone, saying the alignment proposed by Jenkins (who objects to the interpretation) might cause the end of the world through vague gravitational effects. The show is popular and the History Channel digs up some folks talking about other apocalyptic events linked to 2012 (most of which are listed in the cracked article linked by Maastricht). I think this is the source of the widespread pop-culture “2012 as apocalypse” meme.

In 2008, Roland Emmerich submits his script for the upcoming film. I couldn’t find anything saying Emmerich was inspired directly by the History Channel special, but his previous films were inspired by a History Channel show on Mammoth Hunters (10,000 BC), and a TV special on Chariot of the Gods (Stargate), and a book by Art Bell (Day After Tomorrow), so it seems likely.

2012 - World Ends. I die regretting that in 2009 I spent a half hour of what little time I had left reading about the Mayans on the Internet instead of spending time with my loved ones (not really, that first cite was pretty cool, and my loved ones have been kinda whiney lately).

12

You’re here on the Straight Dope Message Board and you cite Wiki about the Mayan Calendar?? Hmpf, just hmpf: Does the Mayan calendar predict the end of the world in 2012? - The Straight Dope

I predict that in 2012, what will happen is that April Fool’s Day will be on Sunday, April 1. And the day after that will be April 2, and will be a Monday.

13

Here’s what’ll happen in 2012:

We Americans will hold a Presidential election, like we do in every year evenly divisible by four.

Obama will win, as incumbents generally do.

Wingnuts will regard this as the end of the world.

14

And unless we can predict exactly whereabouts within our galaxy we are* going to be, how can you know if something is going to be crossing our trajectory?

  • Can we?
15

I’m not sure exactly what they’re expecting, but I’m seriously considering setting up a website where they could donate all their pesky worldly goods and cash to a worthy cause (me) so that it won’t distract them when this goes down

16

Sure!

17

If it’s July, it’s gotta be Mars.

18

There is an election scheduled.

19

I have a friend who believes, based on Fingerprints Of The Gods, that in 2012 the earth’s magnetic field will shift and cause great catastrophe.

20

I was born on December 20th 1941.

2012(41)

It is patently obvious to me that I shall be your new lord and master and all comely wenches under the age of 41 will be mine, all mine.