“Insane Sensationalism”
20 DECEMBER 2012
“INSANE SENSATIONALISM”
On 31 December 1999 the Navy held her breath as doomsday fatalists warned of global meltdown in “Y2K” scenarios. Many of the imbedded clocks in the electronic components of everything from fire control computers to elevators were reportedly programmed with year indications of only two digits, and the resetting from “99” to “00” was predicted to crash their mechanisms. So real were the fears that some Navy personnel were re-called to their workspaces on New Year’s Eve, 1999, to identify and handle anticipated failures. In reality, only a modicum of preparation was necessary for the 21st century to dawn with few glitches.
Similarly, on this day calamity seers anticipated a 21 December apocalyptic catastrophe based on the “Long Count” calendar of the Mayans. The basic unit of that calendar is a repeating 20-day increment, a uinal. Eighteen uinals make a tun; 20 tuns make a k’atun; and 20 k’atuns comprise a b’ak’tun. Mayan mythology speaks of “world ages” each lasting 13 b’ak’tuns (about 5125 years). According to the Popol Vuh, the creation story of the K’iche Maya, humans first appeared at the beginning of our current 13-b’ak’tun cycle (11 August 3114 BC). The next 13-b’ak’tun age would begin on 22 December 2012. But in 1966, writer Michael D. Coe attached unwarranted significance to this date in his book The Maya, claiming the last day of the age would herald a cataclysmic re-making of the world. MesoAmerican scholars dismissed Coe’s claims as “complete fabrication” and “insane sensationalism.” Even the Mayans attached no more than festive significance to the passing of a world age.
Nihilism was further spurred by the astronomical observation that on 21 December 2012 our sun would be in alignment with a massive black hole at center of the Milky Way. The resultant gravitational aberrations were predicted to reverse the Earth’s magnetic polarity or disrupt her crust. In truth, this alignment is only perceptual. Because of a slow wobble in the Earth’s rotational axis (1o every 72 years) the path of the sun across the sky appears to shift from century to century. Over 25,800 years (a Great Year) the sun appears to process 360o through the entire zodiac. As observed on the winter solstice, at some point during this long cycle the sun appears to cross the center of our galaxy. However, as the sun is only 1/2o wide as viewed from Earth, its apparent crossing of this black hole actually takes 36 years. The crossing of 2012 was in its 32nd year, having reached its mid-point in 1998.
Transits of Venus, coronal mass ejections, planetary alignments and Nostradamus notwithstanding, our Navy will likely be steaming the seas for many, many years to come!
Watch for more “Today in Naval History’ 25 DEC 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
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MacDonald, G. Jeffrey. “Does Maya Calendar Predict 2012 Apocalypse?” USA Today, 27 March 2077. AT: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm, retrieved 13 November 2012.
Sitler, Robert K. “The 2012 Phenomenon: New Age Appropriation of an Ancient Mayan Calendar.” Novo Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol 9 (3), February 2009, pp. 24-38.
Stuart, David. The Order of Days: The Maya World and the Truth about 2012. New York: NY, Harmony Books, 2011.