by Cecilia Butler
Doomsday
Gloria Haswell aims a rifle at her steel home made of nine 40 foot steel shipping containers, housing 50,000 pounds of food. She fires three times, then goes to examine her home. The test was a success. A bullet couldn’t break through the walls.
Haswell is featured on “Doomsday Preppers,” the National Geographic reality show about people who are bracing themselves for the end of the world.
According to National Geographic, Haswell is one of three million Americans preparing for the end of the world. She dedicates 50 hours a week to storing food, gathering weapons and creating survival gadgets. She doesn’t know when it will end, but Haswell is certain it will all be over soon.
Dec. 21, 2012, the next supposedly predicted Doomsday by the Maya society is quickly approaching. All over, people like Haswell are bracing themselves for the end, trying to accomplish their life goals.
The Facts
The 2012 phenomenon started with the ancient Maya civilization. The Maya people, thought to be the dominating Mesoamerican civilization, date back to 1800 B.C. Scholars believe the Maya civilization held close to 2 million people at its peak. They built hundreds of towering temples and pyramids, studied complex mathematics and astronomy and developed the Long Count Calendar.
The Mayas are especially famous for their Long Count Calendar. “The Mayas were fascinated with recording time,” Mr. Glen Woods, who visited Central America and worked alongside the Maya people in 2006.
The starting date for the Maya “Long Count Calendar” is Aug. 11, 3114 BC. The calendar is considered very advanced not only for ancient peoples but for modern times as well. Using different blocks of time, the Mayas measured thousands of years in advance.
Dec. 21, 2012 looks like “13.0.0.0.0” on the Long Count Calendar. According to National Geographic, they have interpreted this date as the end of the world because they believed the calendar went past “12.9.9.9.9”.
According to NASA, “the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on Dec. 21, 2012.” In reality, it is the start of a new cycle on the calendar. Dec. 21, 2012 is equivalent to Jan. 1 on modern calendars.
In his book about the 2012 phenomenon, Mr. David Stuart wrote, “no Mayan text, ancient, colonial or modern ever predicted the end of time.”
Yet people all over the world continue to prepare for the mass destruction of the world on Dec. 21, 2012.
What STA thinks
When asked if she believed the world would end, freshman Gabby Keller laughed, “Oh I’m dead set.”
The Hollywood film “2012,” which made $225 million worldwide is a prime example of the media’s influence on the issue. Keller believes the world is in fact ending because of the movie, even though she has never seen it.
The 2012 Doomsday phenomenon has convinced people to quit their jobs and spend more time focusing on their life bucket list. Keller wishes to travel to the Caribbean before she will supposedly die on Doomsday.
“Then I can spend my last day like snorkeling with sharks, like living on the edge,” Keller said.
If so much research has been done to prove why the world is not ending, why are people still convinced it is?
According to theology teacher Michael Sanem, media is not the only influence on the topics; people’s natural instincts play a part too.
Sanem’s point is that modern society is going through so many changes in technology, medicine, politics, education and basic social matters, that people find the traditions they have grown up with are ending.
“Anytime there is immense change in society, the human species thinks ‘because my world is ending, the entire world is ending,’” Sanem said.
“So rather than just expect change, you concoct these [beliefs],” Sanem said.
Just to prove their point, NASA extensively looked into any natural disaster ending the world on Doomsday.
The morning after
So what happens when the world doesn’t end?
“[Here is] what’s going to happen: Dec. 22 is going to come and the world is not going to end and all the Doomsday prophets are going to say ‘Oops we miscalculated something’, and they are going to set [the date] out another year or two,” Sanem said. He believes this cycle will continue until the 2012 Doomsday prophets lose credibility.
Gloria Haswell looks off into the distance, “[Prepping for the end of the world] is not a hobby, its a lifestyle,” she says. So maybe the world won’t be ending on Dec. 21, 2012. Regardless, Haswell and the rest of the “preppers” will still be preparing for the end of the world, trying to figure out the next date of anticipation. But that’s another story.
Top 4 Doomsday Theories
A shift in the north and south pole?
NASA’s website claims, “A reversal in the rotation of the Earth is impossible.” So no, the poles will not shift.
Giant Asteroids?
NASA finds all large near-earth asteroids before they hit. The organization argues, “Nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.” So no, a giant asteroid will not abolish humankind.
Solar Storm?
Around every 11 years, a solar storm occurs and according to NASA, the solar storm that will occur in the 2012-2012 time frame is “no different than previous cycles throughout history.” Humankind won’t be wiped out by charged particles from the sun this year.
World-wide blackout?
Some believe an “alignment of the Universe” will cause a blackout. There is no such thing as this alignment. “Neither NASA nor any other scientific organization is predicting such a blackout,” NASA’s site says.
There are countless reasons for the destruction of the world, but NASA, along with many other scholars are certain we will wake up on Dec. 22, 2012.
