2012 can’t come soon enough

December 21, 2012: the day the world ends.

Or at least that’s what various experts (or conspiracy theorists, depending on your view) want us all to believe. And there is certainly intriguing information that would back up those claims.

First of all, there’s the fact that the ancient Mayan calendar either ends on that day or at least poses the idea of a world-altering event occurring. Then there is astrologer John Jenkins’ assertion that on that date, the northern hemisphere winter solstice sun will cross with the galactic equator. Put simply, some very interesting and crazy developments point out that at the least, 12/21/2012 will be the most anticipated day since 01/01/00.

But that’s where all the talk should stop. People have taken the 2012 ball and run so fast with it, it’s ridiculous. Planetary movements and ancient civilization prophecies are one thing, but turning those partially legitimate facts into global pandemics, super volcanos and mutated humans caused by  gamma ray infection (people are actually talking about this stuff happening) is a whole other animal. Even for deep conspiracy theory believers like me, the 2012 hyperbole is too much.

One of the worst parts about all of the 2012 talk is that by the time it gets here, the expectations will be so high that there’s no way the day can live up to the nutty predictions. Just like Y2K, people could be talked in to such insane things that the real problems could come from pockets of panic.

It baffles me why it’s so important for people to scare the living daylights out of others with all this information. Yes, it could be true that an apocalypse could occur on December 21, 2012, but it could just as easily happen tonight when we’re sleeping.

There may be a few special quirks that make it more appealing to label 2012 as the end of days, but there isn’t enough to warrant all of this.

This hype is one of the reasons people don’t believe certain theories; They all start with fact, but then certain individuals have to take the theory those extra steps and turn them into a series of wild events until no one can even remember the legitimate information in the first place.

But even worse, there’s really no reason why the end of the Mayan calendar should be an integral topic of discussion today, in 2008.

Don’t we have enough to worry about? We’re officially in a recession, there’s constant worry of terrorism and war all around the globe and climate issues could destroy our children’s future.

Proponents of the 2012 theories would say this is all just a lead-in to the carnage ahead and that current events are putting the 2012 possibilities into context. But I’d say it’s because the world is just in trouble, now, today, and will continue to be in the future. And I don’t need a calendar to tell me that.