Reply #14: 2012 is a very convenient symbol

[GliderGuider]

"End of the World" or millenarian ideas usually have two components: a real underlying issue (that may or may not be consciously recognized) and a focusing symbol of some kind. A religious or spiritual context always amplifies the psychological impact of symbols. The millenarian meme reaches full power when there is a threat that is real but only dimly perceived by most, and a symbol that has both logical and supernatural aspects.

The nuclear holocaust fears around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis were founded on the real fear of a first strike. The focusing symbol was Communism, a quasi-religious system that was poorly understood and imbued with a Manichean aspect of pure evil.

The Y2K panic was founded on a real fear of computer malfunctions. The symbol was of course the year "00", which had both a logical component (we were all told how you couldn't get 4 numbers into a computer memory designed to hold only two), amplified by a deeply non-rational belief in the power of numbers (i.e. of numerology).

The thing that prevented either of these psychic outbreaks from reaching full potential was the lack of an overt religious or spiritual connection to their driving symbols. Their power in the unconscious mind was mainly secular.

Here's how I see the 2012 fever.

The real underlying threat driving this outbreak is the accelerating pace of ecological breakdown and climate change, the increasing instability of the world's economic system, rising cultural/religious tensions and the predictions of imminent Peak Oil and its potential impact on modern civilization. Most of the dire predictions of a near term peak in the global oil supply seem to cluster around 2012, the global economic collapse seems set to happen over the same time frame, predictions of global disruptions due to climate change are getting worse and the timing of their effects is drawing closer with every new report. Whether or not any of these effects actually manifests in the next two or three years, they all appear to have that potential and to be converrging on that point in time. In the game of social frenzy, appearances are everything.

So those are the "real" factors. In the face of that, it's easy to see why the year 2012 has assumed such symbolic importance. The timing is exactly right, there is a logical component to the symbol (the Mayan calendar is real) and it has a deep spiritual aspect as well. The end of the time cycle that is apparently tracked by the real calendar resonates deeply with ideas of transformation through crisis that are at the core of all mystical traditions.

These ideas are all entering the collective consciousness through various media, so even if people try to deny the accelerating physical changes in the world they are being subliminally shifted towards this awareness. The "2012 meme" fits into this situation perfectly, since it's in the right time frame and speaks to a great turning into a new, utterly unpredictable state. It has enormous psychic power as a result. Even if one discounts the spiritual overlay of the 2012 idea, it was inevitable that it would become an archetypal vision in this time of upheaval.

One other thing that is happening is that more and more people who recognize the possibility of an imminent collapse of modern civilization are responding with a turn to the spiritual. If hope cannot be found in the physical or psychological materialism, it is always available in the spiritual dimension. We simply re-frame the problem so that a "solution" can be found. With its inherent spiritual component, the vision of a 2012 shift is an natural component of this response.

It's going to be fascinating to watch this psychic fever build. I suspect it's going to be a lot more powerful than anything in recent history.