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Even so, it's not necessarily going to be some overblown "End of the World" scenario like some crappy Hollywood flick staring a guy who was once pretty cool but then started doing lame rom-coms and is now trying to make up for it but is merely overcompensating.
No.
Another way to look at it (if you're into predictions of predictors, etc.) is that it's not merely the end of the world as in the world ends—kaput! But rather it's the end of the world as we know it.
People talk about New World Order or whatever. Well, what if the prediction was that humanity would one day (say, sometime in 2012) reach a pinnacle of communication technology and willingness to the extent that it would mark a turning point in human events across the globe. Yes, we're that close to such an event. Some might argue we're already there technologically and all that's missing is the will.
The Dalai Lama dedicates most of his career to this kind of thing. Other humanists do too. There are many influential people who want to work towards a universal humanism, and maybe, just maybe, this 2012 prediction is just that. The turning point to a better world under a better humanity.
Not some lava-filled, earthshaking, tsunami-crushing, alien-invading nuclear event.
Or maybe it will mark the beginning of a long nuclear winter. Who knows?
Winter is coming.....
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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