APOCALYPSE ROW
Indonesian clerics have condemned 2012 as ‘misleading’, but is movie even worthy of debate?
By Jason Johnson
November 26, 2009
THE idea that Roland Emmerich’s latest blockbuster, 2012, is actually being taken seriously is almost too ridiculous to believe.
The fact that it is stirring debate and controversy over whether or not the world is going to end on 21 Dec 2012 – as predicted by the ancient Mayans, of all people – is just plain disheartening.
If we’re going to start taking the ancient Mayans seriously, then we should really do it right.
Their jaguar gods are awesome. All hail Cit Chac Coh, the mighty warrior god of the Yucatan!
Those of you who live in what one might call reality will perhaps be unaware of the 2012ers and their secret realm of dread, but they’re out there.
One of the more prolific hysteria-mongers is Mr Patrick Geryl, a Belgian author whose books The Orion Prophecy and The World Cataclysm Of 2012 have attempted to sell a pseudo-scientific rationale for 2012.
Pole reversal
In an interview with the counterculture website Project Camelot, Geryl claims that Emmerich cribbed his magnetic pole reversal idea for 2012 as well as his idea about unsinkable boats.
‘There is only one guy who wrote about a pole shift in 2012, and that’s me!’ he declared proudly.
But though Geryl may have cornered the market on the wonky pole thing, he’s not entirely alone in his nuttiness.
Some 200 books have been written on 2012 and, of course, countless websites have popped up.
It has gotten so out of hand that earlier this month, US space agency Nasa had to undertake a rare campaign to dismiss all the apocalyptic myths running amok as ‘having no factual basis’.
Nasa insisted in a Q&A posting on its website: ‘Credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.’
But scientists aren’t the only ones who’ve been coming out against the 2012 hysteria. They’ve found some rather surprising allies in Indonesia.
The Jakarta Globe reported that the religious organisation known as the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in Malang, East Java, has issued a fatwa on the 2012 movie, calling it ‘improper and misleading’.
According to the Jakarta Post, some MUI members have taken it upon themselves to confiscate 2012 DVDs.
A group of elementary school students from Bandung even set fire to DVD copies of the film.
MUI Malang head Mahmud Zubaidi has put it succinctly: ‘No one but Allah knows when doomsday will come.’ Point taken.
While it’s true that the Earth undoubtedly will be destroyed one day, it’s equally true that absolutely no one knows when or how it will happen.
Within a billion years, our planet will likely be rendered uninhabitable by the expansion of the sun.
Long before then, a nearby star could go supernova, dousing the Earth with harmful radiation.
More immediate threats include giant meteors, pollution and nuclear war.
Clearly, Earth will not be around forever.
Thing is, we human beings could indeed be around forever, or as near to it as our particular universe will allow.
But for that to happen, it would be best if people like Emmerich – and all those sad 2012ers out there who’ve turned Armageddon into a silly game – would stop longing for our planet’s destruction.
They are part of the problem.
If one wanted some smarter ideas about what humanity’s ultimate fate might be or could be, one would do better to watch the films of smarter filmmakers than Roland Emmerich.
They aren’t that hard to find.
Stanley Kubrick, for example, worked with science-fiction author Arthur C Clarke on his seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Envisioning man as a space-faring species who encounters a yet more advanced race, 2001 was inspired by actual science rather than pop culture hysteria.
It may not be entirely optimistic – its vision of humanity is rather cold – but at the same time, it at least dares to imagine greater possibilities than are offered by the doom mongers.
Man can progress. Man can evolve. Man can even transcend humanity.
Indeed, during a press conference before the release of the film, the late, great Arthur C Clarke said: ‘In the incredible final sequence of 2001, we go beyond today’s science, as we must, into a realm that can best be described as spiritual.’
If Emmerich is a child stepping on ants, Kubrick was wise a old man, taking delight in wondering what the ants might one day become.
To which group of ants would you rather belong?
Local experts: Don’t expect super typhoons
THE world, you may be quite assured to know, is not ending any time soon.
That sun-planet alignment that’s going to destroy the world on 21Dec 2012?
Not going to happen, according to Mr Albert Lim, president of the Astronomical Society of Singapore.
He told The New Paper: ‘The sun may be quite close to the galactic centre, like in the movie, but even so, it will not cause disasters.’
Mr Lim, who’s in his 50s, has himself read up on the Mayan calendar and says that more people should realise that the Mayans themselves did not say the world was going to end on 21 Dec 2012.
‘People only started thinking there was going to be a disaster when they tied the prophecy to various astronomical events they thought were going to happen,’ he said.
‘In actual fact, there’s no evidence to support that any of the astronomical events will happen.’
Even if the world was hurtling towards imminent disaster, you can be sure that you’ll have ‘tens of years’ of advanced warning.
Exasperated
That’s according to National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Dr Matthias Roth.
An associate professor at NUS’s geography department, he told The New Paper there is ‘no evidence that the world is coming to an end in 2012 because of natural disasters causing the cataclysmic events shown in the movie’.
He shared the slightly exasperated tone of the Nasa scientists who also recently came out to debunk theories about the Mayan’s 2012 doomsday prophecy.
‘It’s quite unlikely that super typhoons or super storms could start within such a short time and destroy the world,’ he said.
He referred specifically to scenes in The Day After Tomorrow (also directed by 2012′s Roland Emmerich) in which New York enters somewhat of an ice age.
‘That could not happen in such a short time,’ he said.
Both experts say they are not discouraging anyone from watching the films, but that viewers should take the celluloid science with a pinch of salt.
‘Go ahead and watch the movie for entertainment, but you should be able to draw a line between fact and fiction,’ said Mr Lim.
Graphic designer Kady Lim, 24, who has seen 2012, says she is smart enough to see through the CGI.
But that hasn’t stopped her from Googling obsessively about the Mayan prophecy.
‘I know I should be more sensible, but I can’t help but think there may be some truth to what the Mayans were saying,’ she said.
‘I’m not really expecting the world to end in 2012, but if it does, I guess I wouldn’t be surprised.’
Juliana June Rasul
The NewPaper