Year 2012: End of the World

So by now I’m absolutely sure that basically everybody has heard the latest prognostication by frequent Rapture predictor Harold Camping. That is to say that he has, once again, adjusted his calculations to predict the date of Jesus’ return to Earth based on biblical prophecy and the notion that he can actually find data that allows him to accurately date much of anything from the biblical era. (Anybody who looks at how the Bible was compiled, or considers the immense challenge of historical record keeping in an era that is virtually pre-historical should already be laughing at Camping.)

This is not the first time Camping has made a prediction like this. He had originally predicted the Rapture would occur in September of 1994… we all know how that turned out. Which is to say, it didn’t, he was wrong, like so many before him, and so many after.

While Camping’s beliefs sound ludicrous to most, whether they self identify as Christian or not, that doesn’t stop them from receiving wide recognition, if not acceptance. Look at any social networking service, Twitter, Facebook, whatever, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that you’ll see at least one status update or tweet about the world ending tomorrow. (For those of you on the other side of the international dateline… sucks to be you, you have until “6 pm” so hold your loved ones close. Or start drawing up plans for how to work the neighborhood for the most phat lewt you can scavenge from your Raptured natives.) It’s big time news, even if it isn’t actually believed by many. And it shouldn’t be believed. Honestly, we should probably feel pity for those who do believe this kind of nonsense.

So come Sunday, when the world is still here, and we’re all still on it (save those of us who died from something other than Jesus beaming them up to have, do not pass dead) and we collectively wipe away the crumbs from our eyelashes, and look bleary eyed at the credit card bills, and mortgage payments, and cell phone bills that still sit, languidly, waiting for you to process them, because, hey, why spend the money if the world WAS ending? Maybe we’ll be wise enough to recognize that Patrick Geryl and Nancy Lieder are no more qualified, no more accurate, than Harold Camping has ever been.

I can only hope that one woefully obviously inaccurate doomsday prediction will bring a shot of cynicism to those so eager to believe in messages of dire import from beyond our own star system, or that the Egyptians somehow held the key for deciphering the Maya(n) calendar despite being separated by an ocean and a lack of vessels capable of navigating it. If I’m wrong, if Harold Camping is right, well, that’s okay too. I’ve already got my own lewt map drawn up. Besides, somebody will have to stick around to take care of my cat. She couldn’t make it on her own. Shame on anybody who is Raptured that also owns a pet. Shame.

The End of the World is big business these days, and not just because of the year 2012. Movies, television, comic books, novels, essentially every type of media is cashing in on the apocalypse these days. Obviously a lot of this entertainment is pure fiction, fantasy meant to provide escapist relief in troubled times, but that really begs the question, why are such bleak scenarios so popular as fantasy escapism? Why do people want to imagine what surviving zombies, natural disasters, nuclear wars, and even divine Armageddon would be like?

I’m not a trained psychologist, sociologist, or anything else like that, so I can’t make an educated guess as to why everybody else is so excited about vicariously experiencing doomsday, but I have some idea about why I love them. Quite simply, it’s because part of me truly wishes these kinds of calamities would come to pass. I realize that sounds both naive and morbid, but I don’t think I’m the only person who looks at the world today and finds it overwhelming. Technology has broken down the borders between nations, and accelerated the rate of cultural change and blending. Future shock will become more and more common for younger and younger people. Despite all this break neck change, daily life for many people in the industrialized world seems monotonous and dull.  You wake up, you go to work, you go home, you go to sleep.  You collect your paycheck, you pay your bills, you hopefully have a little something left for a good time on the weekend or maybe a vacation. Imagine going through that same cycle for two or three, or five, or six, decades, and suddenly the desire for any escape from that kind of scenario becomes increasingly difficult to ignore.

Which is precisely why I think these end of the world scenarios have become such huge sellers in entertainment. We all want to escape from the anxiety of not knowing where our next credit card payment will come from. We all want to get away from a life that seems doomed to meaningless repetition without substance. By presenting a setting in which all of the creature comforts we have grown used to, apocalyptic fiction creates a scenario in which every choice has an impact on your survival. If the species faces extinction, suddenly not only is survival an active process, it’s a struggle with purpose and meaning.

When you limit this kind of fanciful escapism to fiction, it can be a healthy release of stress and an enjoyable way to pass the time. But when you start treating fantasies like reality and letting them effect your daily life, you can find yourself on dangerous ground. Not to say there are no threats to mankind, we are in fact our own biggest threat. Prophecies about 2012 citing the Maya(n) calendar, Patrick Geryl, or Nancy Lieder on the other hand do nothing but stir up panic for the sake of profit.