The Sky is Falling...

My dear friends, it’s true! The world is coming to an end… the sky is falling… the Armageddon is here… Or that’s what Lawrence E Joseph, the author of “Apocalypse 2012” would like us to believe…
He has cited various sources… from Indian sacred text to Mayan shamans to Bible to Human interventions (Atom smashing, Grey goo) to Natural happenings (super volcanoes, high solar activity)… The worrisome thing is that they all point to one single year (if not the same date) which is 2012… Mayan calendar says a new “cycle” will start in 2012… Scientists say the solar activity is going to peak in 2012… Yellowstone is overdue for a super volcano (erupts every 700,000 years)… Everything is pointing to major changes if not the end of the world…

The interesting part is that the diverse sources – from old civilizations as far apart as India and South America to newer scientific intelligence - all point to something big happening very soon… Older sources are clearer about the dates… in fact, as per the Mayan calendar, it’s going to be Dec 21, 2012 (12/21/12)…
Some 65m years back, it took an asteroid (or was it a super volcano?) to bereave mother Earth of Dinosaurs… Am sure if humans existed in some/any form at that point of time, they were either eaten by the starving vegetarian giants, crushed under the falling dead giants or simply died of starvation themselves… the point is that it has happened before and there is no reason for it not to happen again… the only question is when?... and if it can be predicted!!

The book (Apocalypse 2012) is pretty convincing (apart from being witty)… Let’s say it’s true... What would you do if it's true? Just imagine this world ending in 2012… There is a small probability of you surviving but the world would anyways be very very different – remember some creatures did survive 65m years back (am not talking about unicellular basic life forms) – the best known examples is cockroaches… yes my friends… imagine the lady dinosaur going berserk in her kitchen on seeing a cockroach… if you extend this further, may be, as the number of cockroaches increased, there were more and more cases of lady dinosaurs jumping up and down in their respective kitchens which caused minor tremors… may be there was a “tipping point” when these minor tremors per dinosaur caused a major one which triggered the super volcano which caused the untimely demise of the whole specie and many other species…
May be and just may be – this was all a conspiracy of the cockroaches… after all they were the only significant specie to survive the holocaust… may be they are the most intelligent specie living on the Earth (and not the rats as claimed by Douglas Adams in “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”)… And may be it’s the cockroaches who are working on the conspiracy 2012 because they are under threat today… under threat from humans who are trying to come up with ways and means to raze the whole specie (though miserably unsuccessful till now)… May be it’s about time… may be its about time to do what they did 65m years back…

Wow, that was quite an intellectual detour from the question I asked in the beginning of the last paragraph… what would you do if you knew that the world will "kind of" end in 2012… Would you continue to live your life the way you are today?
Some wild thoughts -
First and foremost, Sanjay Dutt would stop worrying about 5 years vrs 6 years – there is anyway no life after 5 years…
I am sure most people would drop the long term plans right away – LIC, pension, mortgage – all would be forgotten…
And, well, I am sure I know at least some people who believe in this theory – the creators of 2012 London Olympics logo! You have to see the bloody crappy logo to believe what I am trying to say here!

So, what would you do? Would you continue doing this "good for nothing" job? Wouldn’t you just drop everything and go on a long long holiday?
But (there is always one), who would you go with on this long holiday – are you sure this other person would be willing to spend the last 5 years of his/her life with you? Where would you go? Who would be there to serve you? Why would anyone serve you – wouldn’t “they” also like to go for a holiday of their own? Who would do the farming and hence who would get the food on your table?
If you continue building on this scenario you would soon realize that it’s going be very very difficult one… within 30 days of everyone realizing/accepting 2012, there would be real anarchy… and within 60 days everyone would get back to doing what they were doing earlier…

Also, the small possibility remains that the world may not end in 5 years… what if it does not end after 5 years? I realized that if I party (and do nothing else) for the next 5 years, the world will anyway be very different even if it does not end… I would be sitting in front of a temple with a bowl in my hands!

My dear friend, the point is, this 5 years thing is no different from the 75 years thing (i.e. the average lifespan of humans)… Most of us do not live our lives partying just because it’s anyways going to end… we don’t give up in the 75th year (most of us) because there is always a possibility of the 76th, the 77th, the 80th and even the 100th year…

I realized that my life would not change much even if I am fully aware of 2012 because there is always an “if” involved… And I believe it would be the same in case of 95% of the people for 4 years 364 days…

Yeah, the dooms day would be very different – I agree…

Now for this week's poll... (please scroll down!)