If you knew the world was to end tomorrow, what would you be doing tonight? Putting panic and hysteria aside, you are left with three sensible choices: praying, making survival preparations, or partying like it’s 1999. Nearly a quarter of the US population believes the world will end during their lifetime, so I am not alone in my concern.
Eight years ago, there was a widespread notion that the earth’s final day would occur on December 21, 2012. This date was chosen by ancient Mayans who studied astronomical alignments and complicated mathematical formulas and were able to create the “Long Count” calendar which ended in 2012. The Earth was to end by being swallowed up by a massive black hole or by a collision with a mythical planet named “Nibiru”. For some odd reason, a large portion of the population actually believed this prediction. So many that a Hollywood blockbuster named 2012 made a whopping $791.2 million that year.
Scholars and scientists dismissed these predictions of cataclysmic events. Mayan scholars insisted no Mayan accounts forecasted doom, but despite these assurances, doomsayers on street corners remained convinced the end was nigh. One wild-eyed man with long unkempt hair said, “I’m not really sure what nigh is but I’m fairly sure it’s coming.”
