Ben Ali-regimets undergang i Tunisia - Fortid

to mind.) Ours is a techno-immersed, materially-oriented
society, somewhat bewildered by where rational, empirical
science might be taking us. I think this is why Jenkins’s
and Argüelles’s explanations of the calculated Galactic
endpoint of Maya time, with their precise mathematical
and cosmic underpinnings, masquerade as science. Dissatisfied
with attempts by establishment scholars to peer
into the Maya ethos, they highjack science and use it to
promote their own ends.
I asked my good friend, the psychologist Belisa Vranich,
about pop-culture’s love affair with things Galactic. She
suggested that its all part of trying to tolerate the idea of
things that are psychologically incomprehensible and consequently
threatening. How can our lives, our chemistry,
ourselves, matter in such a vast domain? Perhaps we latch
onto the Galactic concept in the vain hope that all that
the infinite grandeur that constitutes our known universe
might harbor some hidden meaning for us.
We desperately seek a better life. Bankrupt of imagination
and unable to find spiritual answers to life’s big questions
by searching our collective selves, we turn outward for
answers, to imagined entities that lie at great distances in
space or time – entities likely to be in possession of superior
knowledge by virtue of having attained spectacular
feats of intellectual accomplishment that they have encoded
into the material record for future adepts to uncover.
Yesterday’s Lost Tribes of Israel become today’s alien astronauts.
Since we can’t talk to ourselves perhaps we can
talk to the other. Or perhaps the other has already spoken
to us. Maybe we haven’t listened hard enough. This
is where the impending Y12 overturn fits into the picture.
«What will happen on that grand occasion when we finally
make contact with beings from another planet?», a
reputable astronomer who led project SETI (the Search for
Extra Terrestrial Intelligence via signals acquired by radio
telescopes) was asked. Because we can assume by virtue of
their having communicated with us that their knowledge
must be of a higher form, he answered, we will learn from
them – how to harness and control vast energy resources,
how to coexist peacefully:
I fully expect an alien civilization to bequeath us
vast libraries of useful information, to do with
as we wish. This «Encyclopedia Galactica» will
create the potential for improvements in our lives
that we cannot predict. During the Renaissance,
rediscovered ancient texts and new knowledge
flooded medieval Europe with the light of
thought, wonder, creativity, experimentation,
and exploration of the natural world. Another,
even more stirring Renaissance will be fueled
by the wealth of alien scientific, technical, and
sociological information that awaits us. 8
På tema 13
We will discover the secret of immortality! We will have a
better life! We should expect nothing less from the ancient
Maya than what we might anticipate from extraterrestrials!
At a recent workshop on Maya hieroglyphic writing, I asked
a Maya shaman in attendance «What can we expect in
2012 when your long count calendar overturns?» He immediately
shot back «A new cycle will begin and we will
learn to live in peace and harmony.» Will it happen? Well,
we only need wait 1,515 (1,414) days to find out. Who
knows? Maybe if we all work at it, something good will
come out of the Y12 experience. In this spirit let me close
by dedicating my talk to the bard himself, who reminds
all of us that we might substitute a mirror for the telescope
when he suggests that it isn’t the stars we ought turn to for
answers, but rather ourselves. ■
Noter
1 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 5, 27.
2 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 16.
3 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 5.
4 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 17.
5 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 29.
6 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 29.
7 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 157.
8 Aveni, The End of Time, s. 158.
Literature
Aveni, Anthony. The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012.
The University Press of Colorado, Colorado, 2009.