2012 Predictions

It seems that we (i.e. humanity) have reached our final destination. We are into the year 2012, which supposedly is the last in the Mayan calendar. There are (I have been told) many other cultures and historical documents that also refer to this apocalyptical year as the end of humanity, the world, the universe.

Last night my wife was telling us about some of the predictions for this iconoclastic year, which included:-

· the appearance of a second moon,

· natural calamities (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions etc.),

· war,

· disease,

· crime,

· discovery of other life in the universe,

· others.

Not being immune to this propoganda, a couple of weeks ago, my daughter told me that we have a year to live as the world would end on 21'st December 2012!! I am not too sure whether she mentioned the precise time, but it was a very specific date. She was quite calm about it, and hence I asked her as to why she was not sounding scared knowing that we are all to die? It seems that she has a child's ability to partition her mind, and believe in two opposing ideas at the same time.

George Orwell called it Doublethink! It is an ability to continue to believe in something, even though all observable and logical facts around you prove the opposite, the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.

So I wonder what date will be the next that will be picked on by the doomsayers, when we all safely pass into 2013?

But what completely stumps me, is how anyone can give repeated credence to anyone, who makes such fallacious predictions that turn out false?

The first soothsayer, was the first rascal who encountered a fool - Voltaire