Why is Discovery channel scaring us with 12-21-2012 stuff?

[Lanie]

I know it's marketing and they want viewers...

What do you guys think about all of this December 21st 2012 end of the world stuff? It's been in the back of my mind, and I don't know what to think. My 70 year old father said there were other dates that were said to be the end of the world throughout his lifetime and none of it is true. I guess no one REALLY Knows, but am I the only one that keeps thinking about it???

I was talking about credit card debt with one of my coworkers, and he said he wasn't really worrying about it too much because the world was ending anyway!!!

On this show yesterday on Discovery (or History channel...I can't remember), they had a whole program about how they are storing seeds in this super safe storage area up by Greenland in case agriculture is obliterated. The government is gearing up for this possibility, and that made it a little scarier for me...

Am I nuts?

 

[princesss]

I just don't care. It's interesting, but even if it does end, there's nothing we could do about it. So why worry? Live your life, enjoy yourself, be responsible.

There's always a group of people that say the world is ending for whatever reason, and they haven't been right yet.

 

[dragonfly411]

I think the Mayan Calendar has never been wrong, and THAT is why they want attention to be paid to it.

 

[Porridge]

yeah. just like when all the planes fell out of the sky and everything crashed at midnight on Y2K. oh wait...it never happened!!!

 

[lyra]

My youngest daughter has developed a real phobia about this stuff. It doesn''t really bother me. It''s perfectly normal for the seed archiving, that''s done for preservation sake and in case something becomes extinct. It''s *not* related to the 2012 thing. There is a movie coming out about 2012 and it looks amazing, can''t wait to see it actually. I''ve seen some previews at the theatre. The world was supposed to end in 2000, I think that was the most recent "scare". I wouldn''t worry about it.

 

[monarch64]

I don''t think you''re nuts, Lanie. It is a spooky/scary thought and I find myself dwelling on things like this sometimes and getting a little anxious. I don''t believe in this sort of thing, though. If predictions always panned out, we''d know everything that was going to happen, including when we will die, when to invest, when the world will end, etc.

 

[decodelighted]

Who''s offering three years, no payments on GIANT DIAMOND STUDS then?

No one? Okay, back to my original plan.

 

[VegasAngel]

Has anyone watched Nostradamus: 2012? It was interesting. Anyway, 2013 worries me more than 2012 & not because of 13.

 

[absolut_blonde]

Really, the way we keep track of time and our calendar is rather arbitrary. They''re just numbers. The earth won''t ''know'' it''s 2012 and suddenly implode. I''m not too worried.

 

[janinegirly]

hype = ratings.

just like why news networks will recycle a sensationalized story until we can''t take it anymore, or push scary hurricane watches, or why we keep watchign Jon & Kate.

The millenium was the biggest hype of all..all those firms pouring $ into prepping systems, people stocking up on foods, fear of Nostradamus predictions, and then poof!, not a thing happened. Same thing with the Green hype, yes it''s all for good reason, but it always is portrayed in such extremes!

The world has always evolved over immense periods of time beyond what we are able to perceive (milions of years) and nothing will change there--that much is fact, the rest is just some team''s attempts to get you to watch or buy something.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

They are not scaring us, but simply telling the truth.

Face it, we're all going to die on 12/21/2012. Denial is the first is the first step re: the fact that death is emminent.

 

[Lanie]

I hope the sceptics are right.

They were saying that the Mayan calendar and the Egyptian something or other all say the world is ending on this day. THey have accounted for calendar changes already to fit our Julius Caesar-based calendar. I just think it''s interesting that different cultures from different time periods that are completely unrelated have all said this is the day.

I guess, like you said, there''s nothing you can do about it.

 

[HopeDream]

I remember the whole Y2K thing and the anxiety it enerated for me

A while ago I read up on the whole mayan doomsday thing. As it turns out - nothing doing.

The Mayans had a very complex calendar system and had calculated out the dates until 2012, and then in 1697ish they were subdugated by westerners and their society ceased to be. (So their calendar should have ended right there right? no more Maya - no more calendar).

However, the calendar (perhaps because of its complexity, and it''s cycles within cycles) has survived.
If Mayan society was still functioning today would the calendar still end at 2012? Hecks no! The Mayans would have calculated out another rotation and it would extend even further into the future.

Why the long calendar in the first place? Maybe the Mayans felt that if they could calculate their calendar far out into the future, they would survive as a society? Kind of like they way we make time capsules today, trusting that there will be someone to open them in the future.

 

[radiantquest]

As long as it doesn''t hurt when the earth ends I really don''t care. If there is nothing I can do about it then I am not going to freak out about it.

 

[kenny]

Oh, is the world ending . . . AGAIN?

 

[HopeDream]

Re: the Mayan calendar, the ancient Egyptian thingmebob, and Others agreeing about the 2010 event - I should hope so!

All of those different historic calendar systems were based on celestial observations and dictated by the movements of the planets and the constellations at certain dates.
That the calendars agree means that everyone around the world was tracking the stars and planets with a similar degree of accuracy.

As to the whole end of the world thing - that''s just an interpretation of our sun aligning with a darker band of cloud in the milkyway during the winter solstice in 2012.

wikipedia says:

"Just as the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere is currently in the constellation of Pisces, so the winter solstice is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, which happens to be the constellation intersected by the galactic equator. Every year for the last 1000 years or so, on the winter solstice, the Earth, Sun and the galactic equator come into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun''s position a little way further through the Milky Way''s band.

The Milky Way near Cygnus showing the lane of the Dark Rift which the Maya called the Xibalba be or Black Road.Jenkins suggests that the Maya based their calendar on observations of the "dark rift", a band of black dust clouds in the Milky Way, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or Black Road.[29]

Jenkins claims that the Maya were aware of where the ecliptic intersected the Black Road and gave this position in the sky a special significance in their cosmology.[30] According to the hypothesis, the Sun precisely aligns with this intersection point at the winter solstice of 2012.[30] Jenkins claimed that the classical Mayans anticipated this conjunction and celebrated it as the harbinger of a profound spiritual transition for mankind.[31] "
full wikipedia article here

In the past our ancstors were awed and scare when unexplainable cosmic things like eclipses and planetary alignments occured, and this whole doomsday thing is a relic of that past world view. Presently we can bask in all of nature''s magnificence without fear.

I strongly sugest holding a Kickin Milkyway Party on December 21 2012.
Casual attire is fine, but diamonds are a must.

educationaly yours,

HD the scientist

 

[kenny]

Date: 9/24/2009 11:40:41 AM
Author: absolut_blonde
Really, the way we keep track of time and our calendar is rather arbitrary. They''re just numbers. The earth won''t ''know'' it''s 2012 and suddenly implode. I''m not too worried.

EXACTLY!

Calendars are made up and agreed with. (Like just tons of stuff if you stop to think about it.)

 

[Italiahaircolor]

It scares me...but there have been other scary predictions that didn''t come true. I don''t know. I am hopeful this isn''t true (obviously).

 

[Steel]

As we know, we WILL all die.

I think we do not come with expiration dates because most of us would spend our life worrying about our death date.

What if this particular prediction happened to be true? Even if it is, many of us (meaning the human race) will die well before December 2012. So what does it matter? We WILL die, when that happens does not matter so much. By which I mean if we were to know the date of our death, most of us would lose quality of day to day life. So why would you want to know, much less spend time working out when that day might come? Live your life and love your family. End of.

0.02

 

[partgypsy]

Guys, the calendar is wrong. All early cultures are inherently what you call-it self-centered (everyone except for them are barbarians, their land is in the center of the world, etc). For the Mayans the end of the world was a lot sooner than 2012.

 

[Aloros]

The seeds stored in Greenland are to preserve biodiversity in agriculture, as many of the heritage breeds are going extinct as farmers choose hybrids and genetically modified plants. I have never heard it as having anything to do with agriculture being obliterated. That sounds like severely sensationalist reporting to me.

If the world was going to end, I doubt it would be on some arbitrary, human-chosen date. Obviously, we''re far more fallible than that.

 

[cammy85]

As convincing as some of the arguments are about these things I have a few things that are always my ''grain of salt'' when I hear information like this...

Y2K - everyone predicted the planes were going to fall out of the sky and computers would become paperweights and we had to stock up on food and water. None of that.

September 11 - so many people are talking about how certain texts (Nostradamus, etc) predicted this was going to happen. If the text predicted this was going to happen, why did no one do anything to stop it? Because hindsight is 20/20. After the fact, people are looking in these texts, manipulating their information in an attempt to prove their theories. If they couldn''t predict this, how can they predict the end of the world?

 

[diamondringlover]

Date: 9/24/2009 10:57:11 AM
Author: dragonfly411
I think the Mayan Calendar has never been wrong, and THAT is why they want attention to be paid to it.

That is what my 23 year old said, that it is because of the Mayan Calendar, I guess it makes me a little nervous, but like the Y2K hype, I am pretty sure there is nothing to worry about.

 

[AprilBaby]

The world hasn''t ended in any of the previous 50 years of predictions so I am going to assume I will get at least another 25 more before I die.

 

[upgrading mama]

If you believe in Heaven then there shouldn''t be anything to fear. I type this yet I know when I think of death as ''scary''. What I think about, when I think of these ideas, is that I wouldn''t want to live past the disaster time, or whatever would happen. I wouldn''t want my children to suffer, starve, etc.

as many others have said, there isn''t anything we can do anyway, so I would try to not let it worry you too much and live life to the fullest.

and btw, that person who ''isn''t worried about their credit bc the world is ending"?? I wouldn''t count on that!

 

[Amethyste]

... I think they got lazy and stopped at 12-21-2012.

 

[purrfectpear]

I can NOT believe there are some of you who actually gave this crap serious thought

Time for me to buy more stock in Alcoa when they start passing out the tin hats for the conspiracy peeps.

 

[zhuzhu]

to the eyesroller.

 

[packrat]

I''m trying to think of a way to say anything w/out saying something overly religious. I don''t think the Mayans were able to see into the future. I don''t think they (if you believe in God) had God guiding their hands and whispering in their ears that He was going to end the world on this specific day, for no particular reason. If you believe in the Bible, Mayans didn''t write it, so how would they know this? Seems to be a pretty important bit of info to accidentally forget to put into the Bible.

If the world came from nothingness, then nobody knows when/if it will end, b/c there would be nobody to tell the Mayans or anyone else. They would be guessing just like me or Psychic Sue. If God created the world, then why would He arbitrarily pick the Mayans (did the Sun God or whoever tell them these things maybe?) to be the future tellers?

As far as twisting words and dates..I think it would actually be pretty easy to "predict" things, if you have the right mindset. The whole thing makes me think they came up with the original concept for Psychic Friends Network.

Let''s say the world *is* going to end that exact date..no time mentioned I''m assuming. What good does it do the population to freak out about it? I''m assuming the world would..blow up? There''s no running from that, so I guess let''s all enjoy the time we might have left and be nice to people. No point in saving seeds, I would imagine. Or maybe they meant *life* would end and the world would still be here? In one day, how could this be? The most potent and spreadable disease ever? Maybe it''s the History Eraser button and Stimpy really will buckle under the pressure and push it.

It''s all too cryptic for me.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

How many movies are based on the end of the world in 2012?

Honestly, I'm a bit concerned that so many people are worried about the world ending on an arbitrary date because the Mayans got lazy and didn't want to write out a calendar they weren't going to be alive to see realized. How many people are seriously going into drastic debt with the idea that the "world's ending anyway"? Yikes!