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Author Topic: The End or a Beginning  (Read 2222 times)

browen

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The End or a Beginning
« on: October 18, 2012, 02:00:15 pm »
I'm not sure if I put this in the right place or if this topic has been talked to death, but...
I was wondering what everyone's opinion is of "doomsday" 2012. I've done a bit of poking around on the internet to see what the fuss is about and I know that it has to do with the end of the Mayan calendar, but do people really think we are all going to die?
We are what we think, All that we are, arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, We make our world - Buddha

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2012, 02:49:21 pm »
Quote from: browen;77058
....and I know that it has to do with the end of the Mayan calendar, but do people really think we are all going to die?

Only a (relatively) few people really believe that. The Mayans apparently did not even really believe that.
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Melamphoros

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2012, 02:53:54 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;77067
Only a (relatively) few people really believe that. The Mayans apparently did not even really believe that.

 
In addition to this, it's mostly the work of poorly-researched books in the new-age (rhymes with "sewage" in this case) section and the History Channel's love of shoving a microphone in the face of the nearest person with a tinfoil hat.


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Maps

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2012, 03:22:38 pm »
Quote from: browen;77058
I'm not sure if I put this in the right place or if this topic has been talked to death, but...
I was wondering what everyone's opinion is of "doomsday" 2012. I've done a bit of poking around on the internet to see what the fuss is about and I know that it has to do with the end of the Mayan calendar, but do people really think we are all going to die?

 
Yeah the Mayas didn't come up with anything like that. Fuckin' westerners are the ones that like to think of everything so linearly, but indigenous peoples are often in the habit of viewing the world through cycles. The end of this baktun or whatever (I'm a Yucatec reconstructionist, but that doesn't mean I want to touch any of this stuff with a ten foot pole) is simply the end of a cycle. You draw a mark at one point along a wheel, let it go around once and hey, what do you know, the mark will end up at that same point again eventually. The wheel doesn't explode when that happens, it goes around again.

The only thing that might be of consequence to the relevant people is that we might be getting a "new" sun god, but... seeing as how I honor the sun as an aspect of another deity to begin with, it's not a huge deal to me personally anyways.

Shine

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2012, 07:36:55 pm »
Quote from: browen;77058
I'm not sure if I put this in the right place or if this topic has been talked to death, but...
I was wondering what everyone's opinion is of "doomsday" 2012. I've done a bit of poking around on the internet to see what the fuss is about and I know that it has to do with the end of the Mayan calendar, but do people really think we are all going to die?

 
What Maps said.

And even IF the end of the Mayan calendar meant doomsday, I'm pretty sure someone recently discovered a continuation of that calendar in a temple somewhere.

I wonder why humans are so concerned with doomsday? If/when it happens, what are we supposed to be able to do about it?
Leave your darkness with me, and I will make you shine.

NiDara

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2012, 10:23:31 pm »
Quote from: Shine;77100
What Maps said.

And even IF the end of the Mayan calendar meant doomsday, I'm pretty sure someone recently discovered a continuation of that calendar in a temple somewhere.

I wonder why humans are so concerned with doomsday? If/when it happens, what are we supposed to be able to do about it?

It probably harkens back to Freud's idea of Todestrieb, or death drive. It seems like some people have the zest for life, while others like to cherry-pick bits of archaeology, apply all prophecies, like Nostradamus', to it, think it's the end of the world as we know it, and then try it make the end happen faster. *sighs* Yet, they'd still die in their stocked-up, 60 feet underground bunker, even if it did happen.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2012, 10:28:00 pm by Nic an Dair »

browen

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2012, 11:25:08 pm »
Quote from: Shine;77100
What Maps said.

And even IF the end of the Mayan calendar meant doomsday, I'm pretty sure someone recently discovered a continuation of that calendar in a temple somewhere.

I wonder why humans are so concerned with doomsday? If/when it happens, what are we supposed to be able to do about it?

 
There's nothing we can do about it. It seems the Christians are the ones who are most concerned with it, but that doesn't make sense to me. If they truly believe what they say they believe then they would know that the Bible says that we can't predict it. We won't know when it happens. I don't think we should worry about it so much. What will happen will happen and there's nothing we can do about it. There is so much more out there that is bigger than we are and we can't control that.
We are what we think, All that we are, arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, We make our world - Buddha

EJay

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2012, 03:57:17 am »
Quote from: Maps;77071
......but indigenous peoples are often in the habit of viewing the world through cycles. The end of this baktun or whatever..... is simply the end of a cycle. You draw a mark at one point along a wheel, let it go around once and hey, what do you know, the mark will end up at that same point again eventually. The wheel doesn't explode when that happens, it goes around again.


^This.

Unfortunately the Mayan culture didn't survive to reprint the new calendar.
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Valentine

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2012, 05:40:03 am »
Quote from: EJay;77152
^This.

Unfortunately the Mayan culture didn't survive to reprint the new calendar.

 
Well, sort of.  There are plenty of Mayans left.  They just have other priorities.
"Let be be finale of seem." - Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"
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Maps

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2012, 10:48:09 am »
Quote from: EJay;77152
^This.

Unfortunately the Mayan culture didn't survive to reprint the new calendar.

 
"The Maya are all gone" is, to me, the most dangerous thought to get mainstream attention with this doomsday business. There are millions of indigenous Maya still alive and well today. Not sure if the world is going to end in a few months? Freakin' ask one.

Do people believe that the Italian peninsula sat empty an unoccupied after the fall of Rome?

Nyktipolos

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2012, 11:12:23 am »
Quote from: Valentine;77163
Well, sort of.  There are plenty of Mayans left.  They just have other priorities.

 
Surviving genocide takes up a lot of your time.

(Also, what Maps said.)
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I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." - Sarah Williams
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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2012, 11:49:23 am »
Quote from: browen;77058

I was wondering what everyone's opinion is of "doomsday" 2012. I've done a bit of poking around on the internet to see what the fuss is about and I know that it has to do with the end of the Mayan calendar, but do people really think we are all going to die?

 
Does everyone die at midnight on December 31 because it's time to buy a new desk calendar?
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

victoreia

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The End or a Beginning
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2012, 01:17:26 pm »
Quote from: Darkhawk;77201
Does everyone die at midnight on December 31 because it's time to buy a new desk calendar?

Which is why I try to always buy my calendar *before* the end of the year. Then I don't have to worry about that... :whis:
Do. Or do not. There is no try.  --Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

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Mind how you go. -- Granny Weatherwax

Valentine

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2012, 05:15:48 pm »
Quote from: Nyktipolos;77193
Surviving genocide takes up a lot of your time.

(Also, what Maps said.)

 
Boom.  Told.
"Let be be finale of seem." - Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"
"There isn't a way things should be.  There's just what happens, and what we do."
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Valentine

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Re: The End or a Beginning
« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2012, 05:18:02 pm »
Quote from: Nyktipolos;77193
Surviving genocide takes up a lot of your time.

(Also, what Maps said.)

 
Okay but more seriously, this conversation would be a lot more informed and nuanced and interesting if the vast majority of contemporary classical Mayan literature and artifacts hadn't been destroyed by Spanish missionaries and profiteers.

And there is some sense, from my own reading on the subject, that it's not quite so inconsequential as a new desk calendar--the end of an era is a big deal--but the end of an era is still not the end of the world.
"Let be be finale of seem." - Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"
"There isn't a way things should be.  There's just what happens, and what we do."
- Terry Pratchett, "A Hat Full of Sky"

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