I’ve fielded the question about if the world is going to end in 2012. My first-order answer has been to cite the poor level of success that previous predictions of apocalypse have had. NASA has had to address the problem, while C.G.P. Grey has a nice little video explaining the sources of the hysteria (he’s not very happy with the History Channel).
2 thoughts on “2012: Not the End of the World”
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Our eldest has taken this as a personal crusade. He has all of the self-righteousness of a 14 year-old.
EV: Our eldest has taken this as a personal crusade. He has all of the self-righteousness of a 14 year-old.
Awesome. It was quite interesting when my middle schoolers asked the question, because there was some level of genuine concern. There was also a little bit of excitement from the perspective of, “wouldn’t it be cool if the world ended.” I suspect that many adolescents, to some degree at least, would like to see the remaking of the world, because of the way it would level power structures, and the freedom it would permit. Apocalyptic fiction has a long and popular history.