The End of the World and Symbolism.

This is a continuation of my last post but because I started rambling into a different topic I decided to give it it's own post.

Another seemingly universal truth about every generation is the belief that the world will come to an end in their time. Look back in history and you can find record of predictions of the world coming to an end at least every 100 years or so. This is due to the fact that everyone wants to believe that the world could not possibly continue with out them. It is a self-centered belief that a lot of people share. How could the world possibly exist with out me? I'll never die, the world will simply come to an end on this set date.

What will happen when the latest mainstream prediction of Dec 21 2012 fails to happen? Wasn't the world supposed to end on Jan 1 2000? People were all over the TV predicting the end of times in 2000 and when that day came and went where were they? They all just said "oops we misinterpreted it".

Oh and let it be known, I hate Nostradamus and his followers. Give me one single time that people read a Nostradamus prediction was interpreted before the event happened. They always show up after the fact and point at one of his quatrains insisting he knew it was coming. But when the prediction reads "The eagle will swoop down and clutch the beaver by the tail and the large town will burn." Now give it 500 years and eventually someone that can in some way be linked with an Eagle that attacks or rescues someone in any way linked to a beaver or wood working or lumber mills and a city has a fire... and boom I totally predicted that.

Vague predictions using popular symbols (such as an Eagle) and events like a fire in a city that happen on a regular occasion.

So an ancient calender ends on Dec 21 2012... That calender was created centuries ago, how far in advance did you want them to make it? Should they have kept adding on to the calender until the year 5000? It doesn't matter when the calendar ended, someone somewhere would have found a reason to make it "symbolic".

I really liked the recent episode of South Park where they read Catcher in the Rye. In that episode the boys decided to write their own book and when it got published all the adults were reading all kinds of symbolism in the book that the boys never intended to be there. People can read and interpret what ever they want into everything if you try hard enough.

In the movie Number 23, Jim Carey's character finds he is haunted by the number 23 where ever he goes. This is dealing with Numerology which is one of the most frustratingly narrow minded beliefs. Take any number or word and you can find some complicated way to add, subtract, multiply and divide the number until it gets to the one you want. They ignore any numbers or words that don't fit into their grand diabolical plot of numbers.

So anyway as I was saying, you will die and the world will continue with out you. People will miss you (hopefully) and you will be remembered by at least a few people (hopefully). If you lead a normal life and never stand out in any special way you will be forgotten in a few generations. Your ancestors may look back at you and know your name and see your picture but they will never "know" you. This is how life is, don't let it depress you, if you want to be remembered you need to endeavour to do something memorable.