2012

Someone asked me recently what I thought of the “2012 Prophecy” This is what I told him.

I think the end of the earth, the death of man is such an interesting concept. Living in a heavily Christian country the idea of the apocalypse has a strong hold upon on society. It’s become something of a sick fascination. The Christian church has up held the belief, since the death of Christ, that we are living in “the end times.” More recently we have been hearing similarly dire predictions for extremist religious groups of all factions. Why is a three century old prophecy from an extinct pagan tradition stirring up so much anxiety?

What really concerns me: Is global warming. Israel’s continually antagonistic behavior. The escalating conflict between Pakistan and India . North Korea’s hostility. The extremist in this country who seem intend on engaging an enemy, which has no country, and no laws, with such barbarous and archaic tactics as the carpet bombing cities and villages. People who are bent on fulfilling biblical prophecies. These thing scare me.

If we are indeed living in the end times. If the “world” -that is our world- is going to end in 3 years. What is the value of that knowledge? We are each so fragile. Our little world has represented by our life is so precarious. 40,000 in the US die in car crashes every year. We don’t think about that when we get in our car, because we assume it won’t be us. But the end of “the world” is so complete and so final, that the idea haunts us. There are many tragic events in the world which can snatch away our home, our future, and not all are so grand and cataclysmic. LA could experience an earthquake a slide off the map into the Pacifica. In retrospect of such an imaginary event what would each of us have done differently if we could? Would we have been better to one another has human beings? Would we have been more honest with each other? Would we have pursued our passions more vehemently? Mostly these things would be among our many regrets.

So if we are “living in the end times,” if the world is going to end in 2012. What are we going to do with the present?