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2012 - Why the theory spreads so quick

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posted on Apr, 19 2008 @ 07:18 PM
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Throughout the history of mankind, humans have been falsely predicting the end of the world. And the ATS website is flooded with posts "proving" that the end of the world is coming in 2012.

Well, I just don't buy it.

Here is a very simple list of previously predicted end-of-the-world dates. It is surely not a complete list, but one I just did a very quick search for. Of the 200+ listed, NONE of them came true - amazingly enough - because we're still here.

www.bible.ca...

So why should anyone believe that this time, 2012, is going to be the "end" date? "Oh there are so many signs." Well, nothing really different than the rest of history. Rampant disease, corrupt governments, warfare, changing environment... seems like all these things have happened time and time again throughout our past. Oh, and that Mayan calendar which is just resetting itself as it has done before.

So the question is... Why are so many people jumping on the 2012 bandwagon?

To answer that... I believe it is because of the easy exchange of information, both true and false, across the internet.

Communication and the spread of information has become much, much easier over the past 5-10 years. YouTube was only created in 2005. Myspace launched in 2003. Anybody can be an armchair conspiracy theorist and post ideas on a video blog and make it public. From there, it can spread like wildfire for those willing to believe it. I mean, many people are just suckers for a good end-of-the world prediction - and they want to believe our miserable existance is coming to a cataclysmic end.

Without internet and video websites, the 2012 end-of-the-world predictions would still exist, but probably not as widespread. It would certainly spread via books, magazines, conferences and word-of-mouth. But it would not spread as quickly to the general public as it is today.

Ask for proof about 2012 and they will likely link you to web-videos - youtube, metacafe or whatever the current website of choice is. Toss the speculative theories of Stichin, Icke and others into the mix and the internet blazes like wildfire with 'amazing & unbelievable proof' that the 2012 theories are true. Of course, several of these theories contradict each other, or worse, contradict themselves. And most confuse accepted facts with speculation and theorical information.

Regardless, the internet allowed this prediction to spread, to grow and to expand. With so much information about it available, it is probably difficult for a 2012 believer to extract what 'may' be true and what could have easily been falsified.

A difference between this theory and the 200+ others in the link above is this rapid spread of the theory to the public. Apparently, the more people who have heard about it, the more credible it must be.

I do not post this as an anti-2012 thread - because I respect your right to believe it.

I post to discuss why I the 2012 theory has spread so fast and to so many people (outside the regular conspiracy theory circles). Now, does this rapid spread lend additional credibility to the theory - or does it harm it?

I firmly believe 2012 will come and go like any other year. There will still be wars, economies will continue to shift, diseases will run rampant, and government officials will remain corrupt. The US will elect yet another president to pretend like they run the country. New "end" dates will emerge and the cycles will just repeat themselves.

Just my 2 cents...

M.M.



posted on Apr, 19 2008 @ 07:31 PM
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dude, the end of the world being associated with 2012 accounts for about only 20% of its subscribers.



posted on Apr, 19 2008 @ 08:30 PM
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I totally agree with you. But humans will come and go as they will have always done. But, I do think the next ten years, maybe focused around 2012 will be a big shift for our modern world, as we need to learn to become self-sufficent because we are depeleting our reasourse fasting then they can appear.

As 'Global Warming' (not quite so sure yet, or its just a warming trend) but anyways, it will require us challenge our race to save our planet.



posted on Apr, 19 2008 @ 09:14 PM
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but what about the other 80% I just see it just rolling over again, like look at y2k, old computers roll over to 1980 or 1900, Unix rolls over in 2038 which will go back to 1901 or 1970 depending on distro and setup.

What I am saying is that it will probably just roll over again new beginning thats the only explanation. I don't see anything major happening, I don't see bombs dropping, everyone disappearing, nothing, I find Canada fairly safe from attack, or strange food additives, we have very strict food guidelines here.

Of course we won't be around for Y10K so I won't add my 2 cents on that.



posted on Apr, 19 2008 @ 11:55 PM
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My first exposure to the 2012 date was on a really old paranormal show narrated by Leonard Nimoy. I don't remember when I first saw it, I'm sure it was in mid-late 80's. I only remember this because I've seen it recently on one of the Discovery Channels. I didn't remember that particular episode but I'm sure I had seen it before.

My next exposure to the 2012 date was in the Role Playing Game Shadowrun by FASA. This was in my high school days so lets say early nineties2012 was a major plot device in that game setting. At around the same time that I was into Shadowrun, I had a subsciption to Omni (miss that magazine). This was in my uh experimental days and I remember an article in Omni by Terrance McKenna that referenced 2012. I can only remember 2012 becoming so prevelant in the mainstream after Y2K was anti-climatic.



posted on Apr, 20 2008 @ 02:59 AM
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It isn't just the 2012 craze. Every popular superstition, old-wive's tale, crank theory and end-of-the-world prediction ever made has found burgeoning new life after the internet. A whole new mythology centred on the internet itself is also developing.

The internet is a democratic medium, and democracy empowers stupidity.



posted on Apr, 20 2008 @ 03:06 AM
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I am inclined to think it is just an extension of millennium fever.
Seems to have happened every millennial change.
People seem to have this genetic need that "gawd" will one day soon come and save us from ourselves.



posted on Apr, 20 2008 @ 03:47 AM
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Originally posted by WraothAscendant
I am inclined to think it is just an extension of millennium fever.
Seems to have happened every millennial change.
People seem to have this genetic need that "gawd" will one day soon come and save us from ourselves.


how about people are dumb and we call it a day?



posted on Apr, 20 2008 @ 04:05 AM
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reply to post by JPhish
 


LoL!
Were it soo easy.
Even the smartest person is dumb at times.



posted on Apr, 20 2008 @ 05:01 AM
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reply to post by WraothAscendant
 


no Wraoth, im just throwing in the towel and denouncing that EVERYONE is dumb. That even encompasses yourself and I.~


at least you realize i was saying it in jest . . . The problem isn't that people lack intelligence. It's that they do not apply their varying levels intelligence critically. People like to think they know all the answers, or that someone does, or anyone does for that matter . . . Everyone is so eager to find and accept a truth, that they fall miserably short, with the false assumption that they have found or have known Truth. Most of this world needs to take a BIG step back and truly observe and reflect on the world around them. Trying their best to disregard what they have been brainwashed to believe.



posted on Apr, 20 2008 @ 05:05 AM
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reply to post by JPhish
 


Ah. Something I greatly wish for myself and have repeatedly been saying in different ways. Ah well, we probly will never win but there is something to be said for fighting the good fight.

Besides life would be considerably more boring if we did just "throw in the towel".




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