Mayans Annoyed by 2012 Doomsday Predictions

[kpenguin]

I feel their pain. They bug me too.

[Katana_Geldar]

There are Mayans still around?

[Tavar]

Yes. After their main civilization collapsed they retreated to the hills.

[Cobra_Ikari]

There are Mayans still around?

Yes. The descendants of the survivors of the last doomsday. *nodnod*

[kpenguin]

Well, yeah.

[Robek]

I call government cover-up shenanigans.

[Katana_Geldar]

I hardly think governments were that capable back then.

[Robek]

Not back then, now. Who's to say that the tribal elder even exists. It could all be a government lie to stop panics. Illuminati, One world government, and other silliness.

[SoD]

Apparantly they have real concerns. Like rain.

I'm concerned about rain as well. We don't get enough. Well, we do, but when it rains, my work is easier.

[Copacetic]

Oh no, we shouldn't worry about that. We'll all be dead of swine flu long before then.

It just goes to show human nature will find anything to be absolutely terrified of even when it's nothing at all.

[Haruki-kun]

There are Mayans still around?

Of course. They mostly keep to themselves, and some of the most traditional ones even refuse to teach their children to speak Maya if their of mixed blood, but they're still around. If you visit the Yucatan Peninsula (which you should, because that place is beautiful), you'll find most signs in three languages: Spanish, English and Maya. A lot of them don't speak Spanish.

....because western myths are "exhausted".

I don't know why, but I laughed at this.

[Em Blackleaf]

Nuh-uh, Mayans are a myth.

I agree with Azure Butterfly. If it isn't the apocalypse (in one way or another) it's some kind of epidemic.

[Elm11]

I find this quite amusing. The mayan calender gets on my nerves because so many people i know trust it, despite the fact there is no reason to believe it. Most of them actually think the world will end in 2012 because this calender says so, and most of them don't know a thing about it. It's like me coming up to my friend and saying "oh hai did you hear about this guy named nostradamus he predicted 9/11 coz he drew a picture of a burning building at one point in his life (a claim made by a "documentry" i watched on him a while ago) and my friend instantly believing it, without even knowing who nostradamus was.

I'm just going to laugh on the 22nd of december, 2012.

[Kalbron]

I'm just going to laugh on the 22nd of december, 2012.

You do realise that, the same as with the swine flu and <insert current topical doomsday scenario>, that they'll simply push back the date by a few years saying "Oh, we actually translated/interpreted it wrong, it's really going to be then not now!"

There's a ton of money in doomsday and just general scaremongering, why do you think so many do it?

[kamikasei]

The mayan calender gets on my nerves because so many people i know trust it, despite the fact there is no reason to believe it. Most of them actually think the world will end in 2012 because this calender says so, and most of them don't know a thing about it.

Trust it? Says so? The whole fuss is over the equivalent of rolling over from 999 to 1000. It doesn't say anything, it just runs out of digits and wraps.

[Ganurath]

I can't help but wonder how many people have considered the possibility that the Mayans simply used a major astrological event as a zero point on the calendar, like the birth of Christ being the zero point between BC and AD. The only difference is that this zero point hasn't happened yet, but we know exactly when it's going to happen... A flawless baseline, really.

[Starscream]

I actually know a few people who take this seriously. I'm hoping as 2012 draws closer that I can convince them to give me their stuff. They won't need it, what with the world ending and all.

Yes, I'll give it back eventually. But they must agree to put up with my insufferable "told you so" attitude first.

[kamikasei]

I can't help but wonder how many people have considered the possibility that the Mayans simply used a major astrological event as a zero point on the calendar, like the birth of Christ being the zero point between BC and AD. The only difference is that this zero point hasn't happened yet, but we know exactly when it's going to happen... A flawless baseline, really.

Why on earth would you want a calendar that counts up to a date in the future?

[Serpentine]

Why not? I can't really think of any reason why it makes less sense than counting from a date...

I hardly think governments were that capable back then.

Shortly before the Conquistadors arrived, the Aztec rulers destroyed all (or most) historical documents and rewrote them to their own ends. If that's not a government cover-up, I don't know what is.

[Kalbron]

Why on earth would you want a calendar that counts up to a date in the future?

Could be like Terry Pratchett's trolls' beliefs, and we all started in the future and are currently in the process of moving towards the past.

[kamikasei]

Why not? I can't really think of any reason why it makes less sense than counting from a date...

But if the zero point of the calendar is in the future, you'd expect it to be counting down.

[Killer Angel]

Mayan Priest: hey, how you're going with the calendar?
Mayan Sculptor: not too bad: i've reached the (equivalent of) december 2012
Mayan Priest: ... are you crazy? What's the need in going so far?!? Stop RIGHT NOW! and goes to harvest, before i decide to sacrifice you!

[toasty]

But if the zero point of the calendar is in the future, you'd expect it to be counting down.

Down to the point where you start again? Just like on the Gregorian calendar one counts up to the point where the calendar restarts itself?

As for the whole 2012 is the end of the world thing... no it can't be. The world can't end until I'm dead.

[_Zoot_]

I actually know a few people who take this seriously. I'm hoping as 2012 draws closer that I can convince them to give me their stuff. They won't need it, what with the world ending and all.

Yes, I'll give it back eventually. But they must agree to put up with my insufferable "told you so" attitude first.

Now thats a good idea!

[charl]

The Mayan calender ends at 2012 because they ran out of numbers and space to write them on at that time. It was simply a convenient place to stop counting. Kind of like how Western calenders end each December. Doesn't mean the world ends each New Year's Eve, though.

Apocalypse 2012 is just idiotic.

[GallóglachMaxim]

Hang on, they mention that the long count actually goes beyond 2012 as if that's new information? The Maya calendar features the longest unit of time in any calendar, the alautun, it measures periods of (approximately) twenty-six million years (and it'll be longer than that before that measurement becomes relevant). The only thing that 'ends' in 2012 is the rotation of the largest unit of time currently used, which is then replaced with an even bigger one, and in several thousand years that runs out, so another bigger one comes in.
The Maya had an insanely long-term perspective on time, and it's unfortunate that alarmists are jumping all over incorrect information, but that is what they do.

(Edit, because I missed it the first time)

You do realise that, the same as with the swine flu and <insert current topical doomsday scenario>, that they'll simply push back the date by a few years saying "Oh, we actually translated/interpreted it wrong, it's really going to be then not now!"

There's a ton of money in doomsday and just general scaremongering, why do you think so many do it?

Well the Maya did miscalculate the length of a solar year (they skipped the loose six hours on the end), so if people really want to go on with this, they've got a good excuse right there.

[CapedLuigiYoshi]

Trust it? Says so? The whole fuss is over the equivalent of rolling over from 999 to 1000. It doesn't say anything, it just runs out of digits and wraps.

This. This is correct.

I'm not sure if I have the authority to do so, but I'll try to vote you as winner of the thread.

Seriously, it's like New Year's.

[Telonius]

I am a bit bothered by all of the 2012 predictions. What I can say is that I'm going to have one seriously epic birthday party when it happens. (And hopefully it won't be so epic that it actually brings about the prophecy).

[EleventhHour]

I think we should start hiding references to some date a thousand or two years from now, just in case our civilization gets destroyed, they'll have the sneaking suspicion that we knew when the world would end. Better still, since GitP is an international community, it'll be all over the planet.

[Myrmex]

Shortly before the Conquistadors arrived, the Aztec rulers destroyed all (or most) historical documents and rewrote them to their own ends. If that's not a government cover-up, I don't know what is.

Do you have any evidence for that; a wikipage or something.

Cause I know after the Conquistadors arrived, the Spanish destroyed everything but two codices or something like that. That was an Inquisition, though. Quasi-governmental, I guess.