I am told that there are a lot of folks who expect the end of the world to occur on December 21, 2012.  And the reason for it?  I guess that date marks the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar, and the folks that are putting stock in this end of the world thing regard the Mayans as authoritative.

My question on this is: why?

Why would anyone think that the Mayans would have any insight into the end of the world?  What is so special about the Mayans?  Good question, and I haven’t seen the answer.

The fact is, the Mayans couldn’t even predict the end of their own civilization, so how can they be relied upon to produce a reliable date for the end of the world?  But as it turns out, the Mayans didn’t “predict” a darned thing!

What is the Long Count Calendar?

I suggest you check out the Wikipedia article on the 2012 Phenomenum,  Apparently the Mayans themselves in some of their inscriptions referenced dates beyond December 21, 2012.  And that date only represents the end of the 13th b’ak’tun.  The day after is the first day of the 14th b’ak’tun.  That is all that is going on here.

Now, if I were completely free of conscience, knowing what I know I could have cashed in on this little freak-show.  But I am just too honest for it.  Or maybe I don’t have enough business sense.

There’s reasons for being prepared for emergencies, don’t get me wrong.  Nobody who has seen the dislocations in the wake of events like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2012 can discount the value of being prepared.  But freaking out about this bogus end-of-the-world hysteria?  No, no.  Let’s not.