MANKIND'S END?

On Halloween night, I went through the list of programs being shown by Destiny Cable and did not find any entry about what movies were being played in its channels. I assumed that only old movies were being shown, so I moved on to the other channels, mostly about news. But even the news items shown were replays. I clicked on HBO just the same and watched an episode unfold. Not knowing how the movie began, I still was curious about the episode where a fake Mona Lisa was replacing the genuine piece which was supposed to be transferred to a more secure site in Switzerland. I thought the movie was French because the conversation was translated in English subtitles flashed on the screen.

Then the scene changed to an aerial view of an urban city. And these large numbers flashed on the screen – “2012”. Curious to know what connection the Mona Lisa change had to do with 2012, I continued to watch. And then, I realized that without Destiny Cable warning us about it, the movie “2012” was being shown.

I am rather slow to understand the dialogues being played in English. No more subtitles this time because the movie is really American made. I won’t talk about the story about a science fiction writer, his personal life and the perils he and his small family had to go through so that the movie, in spite of the horrible disasters depicted in it, did have a happy ending in the sense that a portion of humanity survived to repopulate the Earth. I can only give comments on what I thought were the unscientific situations that unfolded in the movie. (There is actually a website where the goofs of the movie were brought up, but I will take up one issue that was not discussed.)

By the way, the movie is an interpretation of what could happen when the Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012. There are scientific explanations for this, such as the alignment of the solar system with the Galactic Center, which is a massive Black Hole. There are other benign interpretations of the End of the Mayan Calendar, such as the heightened spiritual awakening of mankind, etc, etc.

Back to the movie: Consider the following events -- massive earthquakes shake California opening up the San Andreas Fault and sinking the entire landscape into the Pacific Coast; enormous volcanic eruptions along the rim of the Yellowstone Park caldera, and elsewhere, tsunamis that rose all over the world with waters overwhelming continents even up to the tip of Mount Everest; and so on and so forth.

Surprisingly, with all the earthquakes and tsunamis and other turbulent phenomena, the movie can still show aircrafts, such as cargo planes, helicopters and light planes able to fly. As well, television newscasts, telecommunications and various other electronic gadgets are able to operate to inform the survivors of the horror that surrounds them.

I think, having my little knowledge about science, with all the cataclysmic activities, even the atmosphere will be violently agitated. The massive electromagnetic disturbances caused by the eruptions and the earthquakes would have wiped out all means of communications. I can imagine that all electronic connections will be rendered inoperative all over the world. The manmade space geocentric satellites will be jolted out of their orbits. Nothing will be spared. We will even lose all our computer files, our blogs, everything that we think are permanent in the electronic world. In effect, we shall never know what is happening in other places except the events that unfold before our eyes. The “three days of darkness” will blot out not only sunlight but all instruments of knowledge available to us. In our last minutes of life, we shall think that God’s Wrath has chosen only us for chastisement.

We can excuse the producers of the movie for not considering the electromagnetic disruptions resulting from the various catastrophes that will occur. The movie has to show their physical effects and magnitude so that we will appreciate in horror what can afflict humanity when the shifting of the poles and the heightened solar activities do happen.

We can excuse the optimists for believing that the End of the World will not be the massive destruction of humanity. We have waited in vain for this end in 2000 and nothing happened. We can excuse the optimists for thinking that the end of the Mayan Calendar is the beginning of our spiritual evolution bringing us peace and happiness.

I know of a pessimist who did believe the year 2000 will end mankind, and got a massive real estate loan to build a mansion hoping to be rid of paying the amortizations when the banks are destroyed. When I said 2000 will not end the world, he asked, ”what if it happens?” I retorted, “who will blame me for being wrong?” (I think he had to give up his mansion when the End of the World did not happen.)

Although I have doubts the movie 2012 will happen, I think we shall still experience a number of catastrophes and cataclysms but not in the magnitude portrayed. And humanity’s spiritual evolution will not be perfected by that time.