All logic and rationality gave way when, people around the world held their breath on 21-12-12, at 12:12:12 AM, waiting for something to happen. We all knew logic demands us to believe that nothing would have happened, and so we pretended that we knew all along nothing would happen. The Mayan prophecy was right, but our interpretation of it was a little flawed.
It was assumed that because the Mayan calendar ended at 21-12-12, so would the world. In actuality, the Mayans were not just great astronomers and mathematicians; they were also great anthropologists and psychologists. Their prediction of the ‘end-of-times’ was based not on the stars and numbers but on the study of human behaviour and community. The concept is pretty simple, if a bad thing happens frequently enough, it doesn’t seem all that bad anymore. Every time a crime was committed, it became more acceptable to commit that crime again. Man was continuously evolving into a dangerous creature, devising new and innovative ways to hurt each other.
Their observations led them to believe that soon a time would come when, the world gets so heavily divided that living together on the same planet would become impossible. As time passes, man would become angrier and more violent. Superiority, wrath and arrogance will become so deeply rooted in man’s mind that he would be ready to go to any length to establish his dominance. Finally, man will go against man and ultimately destroy himself.
A brief glance around the world would reveal that the Mayans were indeed right. Nations today are a blend of selfish leaders, deprived societies, war-torn cities, tense borders and communal violence. People are continuously living under threat not just from people around them, but also themselves. Alcoholism, drug abuse, substance abuse are ever increasing. There is a constant hum about the ill-effects of these on the human body, but their consumption is not reducing at all. Generation after generation, the level of acceptance of violence against another man and against oneself is expanding. Science and technology are making life better, but life expectancy is shorter.
Crime rates are escalating, violence against women is at an all-time high, cities are bustling with riots, rapes and robberies and these have become the order of the day. Man has become an animal that no one can tame anymore. Nations are amassing weapons to protect themselves; weapons that would wipe out any sign of life off the planet.
As world politics seems to have become murkier than ever before, the world is truly coming to an end, as the Mayans had predicted. Man is constantly at war with man, and soon things would turn ugly. The date is not set, but a sudden turn of events will bring us to the precipice of the apocalypse-The Nuclear War. However, for now, you can rise and shine for the world has not really come to an end. As far as the future is concerned, the answer to the same is exceptionally difficult to provide.