2012 Is Here – Do We Dare Celebrate?

By James Donahue

It has been tradition as long as we can remember to celebrate the arrival of every New Year with singing, dancing and general rivalry. Fireworks, bells, shotguns and shouts of “Happy New Year” ring through the night sky at the mark of midnight.

There is usually a relief that we have just completed the previous year, having made a lot of blunders. Resolutions are made to try to do much better in the New Year. Indeed, every New Year gives us the glowing sense of a new beginning. It will be a year to set things right.

But the year 2012 comes with attached and pre-set adversity unlike anything mankind has ever faced in the past. Not only have world leaders apparently gone insane and protesters taken to the streets, but we are faced with an overcrowded and polluted world, extreme climate changes that threaten our quality of life and an obvious collapse of the world economic system.

Oh yes, and then there is that Mayan Calendar thing. There is a growing belief that because that ancient stone-carved calendar in the Middle American jungle comes to an abrupt stop on December 21, 2012, it was a warning that it may mark the end of the world as we know it.

Nobody has ever explained how the Mayan people might have been able to predict the end of the world with that kind of accuracy. But with more and more people believing that this date holds some kind of prophetic warning, and with world conditions deteriorating as quickly as they appear to be, the concern is that Jung’s theory of collective consciousness may snap into play. With so many humans believing the end will arrive this year on that exact date, we might just make it happen.

(It apparently hasn’t occurred to anyone that the stone carver that made the calendar ran out of room on the stone.)

There may, however, be a silver lining to all of this doomsday thinking. That we have so many people in the streets rising up in opposition to the oppression that has controlled nations and enslaved so many workers to a form of slave labor for so long, may be a sign of a world revolution now occurring before our eyes.

Astrologers, would-be prophets and self-proclaimed psychics are predicting that they believe change is coming . . . but it will not be the end of the world. It will be the end of the way the world has been operating for thousands of years. They are saying that something new is about to make itself known.   

While December 21, 2012 may be the end of the world as we know it, it does not mean we are facing the end of the world and human extinction. If there is any good thing to come out of this change, we might express optimism and believe that perhaps a new world is about to emerge.  But if it happens, we are going to have to do the work.

Christians are looking for a return of a messiah that will drop down out of the sky and save the world. Christian sects believe Jesus will rise from the dead and lead them in a great war against the forces of evil before establishing a world kingdom in Jerusalem. Undoubtedly many of them see 2012 as the year of this magical event.

The problem with the Christian story is that it is an extremely exclusive club. Only “born again believers” will be allowed in and everybody else in this world is excluded.  This concept is obviously as flawed as the Islamic cult promise that those that blow themselves up for Allah are rewarded by 72 virgins in Heaven, and the Jewish belief that they and only they are God’s “chosen” people.

Repairing this cock-eyed world may just take some common sense and a charismatic leader with the ability to bring some sanity back into the way people are thinking.

From our perspective, the best solution is found hidden all along in the heart of all of the world religions. It is that old four-letter word: LOVE. If the people of all creeds can bring themselves to set aside all of the nutty mythology attached to their books and stories, and practice love for our fellow humans, as taught by the prophets of old, the magic could  really happen in 2012.

The solution is equality for everybody. That suggests a one-world socialistic government system and a fair and equal distribution of the wealth and resources. It is due time to put an end to unfair dictatorships, corporate controls, kingdoms and outdated religious systems that work together to enslave the people.

Most of all, it is time to do away with the wicked system of materialism and war under false pretenses that have drained the world’s resources. We must learn to work together to save this planet and all of the creatures on it from the threat of a premature death and eventual extinction. It is not too late. December 21, 2012 is as good a time as any to start on this new path to a brighter future.