The Year Past and The One Coming ... Will it be the Last?

As the New Year approaches, it is natural, and indeed healthy, to look back over the one just past.

Individually, it is often a time for reflection on things in our lives that didn’t work out too well, bad habits that we continue to participate in despite our better yearnings, or waistlines that are expanding inspite of our stated goals of reversing that trend. This trip down memory lane named “The Past Year” often precipitates the heartfelt, hopeful and too often short-lived resolutions for the New Year.

It’s not just individuals, we, the little people, who look back over the year. The Patch, like nearly every media outlet, whether it be print, online or a major network inundates us with stories and lists of the top events in a variety of categories.

On the one hand, I get how these fillers are useful during a time that is traditionally a slow news cycle. They are cheap to produce, as all the facts are there, no new footage needs to be recorded, except for the talking head hosting the lineup of previously shown clips.

The cynical part of me, the little paranoid, conspiracy-theorist voice in my head that makes me sometimes feel there is a tinfoil-lined hat in my not too distant future, says this is just one more example of “The Media” telling us what to think. “They” are telling us what parts of the year just past are important, thereby influencing how we think and what we will perceive as important in future years.

I would worry more about that little voice, except since it keeps calling for tinfoil to line my headwear, I’m less and less concerned as I haven’t seen tinfoil for sale anywhere in longer than I can remember. The voice tells me that is because this new-fangled aluminum stuff is part of the conspiracy and it isn’t as effective at reflecting mind controlling rays. The voice is recommending lining my ceilings, walls and windows with multiple layers of the less effective substitute and hope for the best.

You should hear what the voice says about my having bought a car with a sunroof.

The little voice has been quite vocal this year. As I look through old news stories, think of TV shows, movies and documentaries that have been put out, there seem to have been an inordinate number telling us the world is going to end in 2012. Each time I even see the title of such a program, before reading the description of the show, the voice is practically shrieking at me.

There have been countless interpretations of the Mayan long count calendar ending on December 21, 2012. One of my favorite shows was a series of interviews that included a NASA scientist whose response to a particular scenario was outraged indignation on the order of "that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, I don’t even know how to respond to that."

That reaction just made me laugh out loud. I would have loved to hear the conversation that followed that taping, outraged serious scientist vs. presumably snarky producer, one worrying about his professional reputation, the other thinking he just made his.

Brad Meltzer, a fiction writer whose work I have greatly enjoyed, hosts a show about supposed or alleged conspiracies, cover-ups, or just historical mysteries. The show is presented as being well researched and documented, and even attempts a modicum of a balanced perspective by having three intelligent, skeptical "researchers" run around the country – and the world – interviewing source witnesses, examining original documents, and then sitting down to discuss the various viewpoints. This show, too, has tackled the Mayan Calender controversy, as well as a couple other endtimes scenarios.

At the end of the show, Brad comes back on screen to sum up what was uncovered, discovered, recalled or witnessed, exhorting the viewing public to decide for themselves. Of course, he shares his conclusions as well, but with just enough caveat to leave the viewer wondering if what we just saw presented as supposed or alleged truth is really true.

How the world will end, exactly, is dependent upon which theory you believe is most credible, and there have been plenty of experts to tell you how to prepare to survive. There are countless Web sites, and quite a few companies out there, willing to tell you exactly how much food stuffs, water and other essential supplies you need per person in your household for various amounts of time. The best part is many of these sites will sell you exactly what you need, prepackaged and shipped right to your door.

That little voice just popped up again, screaming at me, "If you buy supplies from someplace on the Internet after everything goes to hell, ‘they’ will know who you are, where you are, what you have and just come steal your stuff. And probably kill you in the process."

Sometimes that voice can be annoying, but in this case, it provided the perfect segue into the next topic on the paranoid conspiracy-theorist hit parade of the past year. Defending yourself after the world ends.

That sentence seems like a paradoxical statement … how can you defend yourself after there is no longer a world on which to live, and you and all life is ostensibly extinguished?

The end times scenario here is best referred to as better safe than sorry. This theory assumes that something big will happen that will cause society to break down. Yes, there will be massive death in the initial event, whatever it is, but there also will be survivors.

At first blush, this seems to be the most optimistic of the various doomsday scenarios. Then, look a little deeper and this is the one that truly, deeply frightens me. This is the one that really makes me stop and think and wonder what I could/should/would do.

First, assume that me and mine are among those, I hesitate to say lucky, to survive the initial whatever and second, we have supplies on hand to sustain life for an extended period of time. We now have to defend ourselves and supplies from the marauding hordes as well as from "them" that tracked our purchases.

So, we need weapons, security systems and some kind of power source that will withstand the destruction of modern civilization yet remain undetectable to all outsiders.

On that same favorite show of the past year on this topic in which I paraphrased the NASA scientist, an "end times expert" of one ilk or another was asked how long it will take for a disruption in the supply chain upon which modern American civilization depends, for society to breakdown. His answer was shocking, both because of what he said as well as the logic behind it.

His answer was three to seven days. Days.

He postulates this time frame on the premise that water is the single most important component of continued human existence. In our modern world, water comes from a tap that you just turn on. Some buy water in bottles and jugs, but he says the store shelves will be empty within hours of the big event.

Unless you are in an area with your own well, within three days most people will have run out of water and have no way to get more. Human beings can exist for weeks without food, but without safe water, within three days, your body and mental faculties start shutting down.

He says the panic will be immediate and widespread, and given that scenario, I can’t disagree. We all remember the images of the after-effects of Katrina and
countless other large scale disasters. The first thing being unloaded from all
those Red Cross and supply trucks was bottled water.

It doesn’t even take an actual disaster to clean off the shelves in the local grocery stores. We’ve all seen the TV news footage of empty shelves when the weathermen predict a particularly nasty storm of one type or another coming.

The scariest part of surviving the initial event, to me, is what happens the next day and the day after that.

I’m an insatiably curious person, and whenever I am confronted with something not previously on my event horizon, I do my own research. Yes, I search the Internet, but I also look for books and viewpoints as divergent as possible, so I have as much varied information on which to base my opinions.

The single most frightening thing I’ve read, and I’ve found it in many places, is the answer that some are choosing based on simple economics. They are buying guns and ammunition, because a bullet is cheaper than the gallons of water needed for one family for one day.

My research has uncovered some of the most popular end-of-the-world scenarios, and I’d like to take an unscientific little poll to see which of these resonate with my local community. The choices are at the bottom, and as always, clicking on the box will show how many are voting for each scenario.

For more information on what each of these scenarios mean and entail, a quick Google search will give you enough information to alternately scare the hell out of you, make you laugh out loud, contemplate running to the store to buy supplies and the armaments to protect them, plan a winter vacation at a well-stocked remote mountain cabin or simply get right with your God.

So, while all the media outlets, including this one, are busy putting together lists and stories of the most important and memorable events of the past year; while most people are contemplating what their New Year’s resolutions will be and what strategies they will employ to ensure success this time; while some are preparing to survive the end of the world; while some are profiteering on the fears of the end of the world, I’m trying to decide if I would want to survive beyond whatever is possibly coming.

And looking for a supplier that sells old-fashioned tinfoil, just to shut the voice up.

Which of the following do you believe is most likely to happen on December 21, 2012? Of course, if there is another scenario not listed here you feel is more likely, tell us about it in the comments. You may have an answer or information others don’t.

(To take the poll, click .)

** Solar Flares cause a massive EMP – an electro-magnetic pulse takes down the electric infrastructure and fries all electronic equipment.

** Planetary Alignment – our sun lines up with the center of the Milky Way and other planets and the moon, causing massive shifts in the plates of the earth’s crust, causing Yellowstone to erupt.

** Ancient Aliens Return – the forefathers of the Sumerians and other ancient civilizations including the Aztecs and the Mayans, return to either punish us for polluting the earth or harvest us for the continuation of their civilization.

** Asteroid impact – a planet-ending asteroid strike, causing a ‘Nuclear Winter’ akin to what took out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

** The Second Coming of Jesus - this will either be a moment of great joy at getting to meet your Maker, or untold horror witnessing the end of the world, depending on which view of Christianity you adhere to.

** Nothing – except a few people getting rich off the fears of many.