The aftermath of 2012

Tell me something: (okay it is rhetorical, I get it) why is it we spend more time following up after these apocalyptic films than parsing out their realities? It seems that persons are more interested in being frightened by this genre of film than looking at the History Channel and getting the real story from people that know a little something about this. This movie 2012 has to do with Mayan culture and the mythology of their view of end times. They have figured out when the world will come to an end using their system of astronomy (a postulation) . This is nothing new!! Humankind has tried for years to get an idea, a glimpse , a hint as to when this will occur. Theologians of every movement from Paul's letters to the Philippians, to the Mayans and the Millerites, now the Seventh Day Adventists; as well as others have wrestled with these issues.

Human nature as it is likes viewing the unknown. From the time we saw the horizon, civilization has asked the question "what is out there?" And at times we have gone to see, with great results, with failures, and with marginal success. The point is curiosity kills us and we like it. Wanderlust, exploration, all lead in time to a question: how does this all end? But the issue I have is that we always ask this question during times of crises. As an example many years ago there was a movie called "Birth of a Nation." It was not like 2012 or the Planet of the Apes trilogy, that spoke of the end of the world as humanity knew it. (I can still hear the vitriol in Heston's line, "get your dirty hands of me you ape" and in another blog I will deal with that loaded comment.) In some circles it would not be classified as "apocalyptic," yet it was. It depicted the antebellum South, the loss of pride, station, respect, nationhood; and how in the midst of carpet baggers and free blacks: the south rose again. Historically, no less a person than President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that this was "lightening in a bottle." Such is the nature of these films: they are lightening in a bottle, they are made to inflame passions, make us ponder the end of the world, or usher in an agenda which swings the pendulum back toward the center, or the right. It is against the backdrop of this agenda that films like 2012 are made. The premise is simple: the world is ending. Earthquakes, storms, disasters all take place around the world. Catastrophic events of cataclysmic proportion are wrecking the planet. The government is not to be trusted--it is literally everyone for themselves. The movie has many interpretations and warnings from environmental concerns, to nuclear usage, to biblical admonishments (I am laughing as I write this phrase and only a preacher would find it funny); however, the bottom line is we are in crisis mode. For the first time since the Depression, people are wondering if the end is in sight. Is this the end of the world as we know it? Is the way of life, philosophy and culture we enjoy ending? Do we face a debacle where the very foundation of all we hold dear must vanish? In the language of the new testament : We do not know. There is much more depth and madness the world must endure before the end. All we can do is to be rational and reserved and not take the pictures so seriously: the sky is polluted and dangerously so, but, it is not falling...yet