"The sky is falling. The sky is falling." And The World Is Coming To An End. NOT!

     I guess the world isn't coming to an end today.  Doomsday has come and we're not gone.

     According to legend, the ancient Mayan calendar ended as Friday, December 21st, 2012 crossed over in to Saturday, December 22nd, 2012 at the stroke of midnight, thus we would cease to exist.

     Although my feet are planted firmly on the ground in the United States of America, in an eastern time zone, the clock has already struck 12 in other parts of the globe - the appointed time of doom and gloom - and there was no sign of the apocalypse.

     The social network, Imgur, posted photos of clocks reaching the hour of reckoning in the Asia-Pacific region with one message saying, "The world has not ended.  Sincerely, New Zealand."

     Did any of us really think the planet Earth was going to blow to smithereens?  Despite all the hubbub and hullaballoo, did any of us - any of you - truly believe that the world was going to explode and 7 billion people were going to be killed?

     The fact of the matter is that this entire farce - this sham - is a cash cow. It's a way for people to make big bucks from writing and merchandising books, producing television specials and movies, and even selling souvenirs for something that was never going to happen and never did.

     NASA has gotten in to the act, but in a positive way.  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a Web site to help put our minds - (wait a second - your minds; I'm not worried at all) - at ease.  NASA scientists say, "The world will not end in 2012.  Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."  NASA also states, "Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31st, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21st, 2012.  This date is the end of the Mayan Long-Count Period, but then - just as your calendar begins again on January 1st - another Long-Count Period begins for the Mayan calendar."

     But just for the heck of it, let's have some fun with this.  Who really knows why the Mayan calendar stopped at December 21st, 2012?  Did the guy who printed it, run out of ink?  Did he get bored and say, "Oh boy, am I tired of this?"  And so he went on to another project.  Or were the Mayans a bunch of practical jokers?  Could you imagine a group of Mayans getting together and one of them saying the following?  "Let's not continue the calendar passed December 21st, 2012.  We won't be alive anyway and the people then can scramble around and wonder if the world is coming to an end." 

     Hey, all we can do is laugh and have a good time with all of this craziness.  But do people of the 21st century lack that much sophistication that any person really thought it was possible - even slightly possible - that the world could indeed go bye-bye?

     Well let me tell you - at least 93 people in the People's Republic of China had doubts of us being around after today, as they were all arrested this week for spreading rumors of an apocalyptic event.

     This cosmic catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when we all lived to tell about it, the doomsday date was moved to December 21st, 2012; and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at this year's winter solstice.

     The date, December 21st, 2012, is actually regarded as the last date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.  Professional Mayanist scholars have reportedly stated that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the existing classic Mayan accounts or documents of any kind; and that the mere notion that the Long Count calendar ends on December 21st, 2012, misrepresents Mayan history and culture.

     All of the above said - does anyone really care?  Anybody that honestly believed that the world was ending today is quite frankly a goofball.  The proof of the pudding - so to speak - is that we're still here - and the problems of war, sickness, poverty, hunger and going over the fiscal cliff - (uh-oh... that's a topic for another day) - are still with us; as are many other more pressing and more realistic concerns than the "poof" of our planet.

     So the next time anybody says to you - "The world is coming to an end," remember Chicken Little's hysterical and mistaken belief that disaster was imminent. 

     "The sky is falling.  The sky is falling." 

     Well...don't believe everything you are told.  Or else...who knows?  You just might get eaten by the fox.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

                                                I'm Gary B. Duglin.

Copyright 2012 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net. All Rights Reserved.