2012: Some Thoughts

As 2012 dawns, I find myself increasingly withdrawn from the events of the wider world around me. Everywhere you turn, it seems you find another tiresome prediction about disaster, doom and decay in the coming year- not to mention the purported Mayan apocalypse looming on December 21st. I, for one, find it tiresome and think that we need to change the direction of the conversation a little bit.

The Industrialized World is in crisis, no doubt- but that's because the process of creative destruction is taking hold worldwide and no stone will be left unturned before it's finished. The Modern Welfare State, founded in the aftermath of the Second World War is finally crumbling into dust and our greatest crisis is not it's collapse, but our staggering deficit of political leadership to deal with the crisis. Something has to follow what has gone before- but so far, no one seems interested in having a debate on just what that something might be.

And do I know the answers? Nope. Not a clue. As I'm distinctly not a policy-maker, I'm going to resign from the answer-prognostication business as it's become plainly obvious to me that I'm no damn good at it. Why bother talking when nobody important is willing to listen? Why speak, when you no longer have a voice? On my bucket list of things to do before I'm 30 I included going to the Iowa Caucuses. I don't think I'm going to succeed at that one and I'm cautiously OK with that. The Republicans don't have a candidate worth supporting anyway and quite frankly, I'm tired of believing that anyone in either of what passes for our two parties has the capacity to create and oversee the serious changes necessary to make it through these turbulent times.

But enough of politics, we all know how that goes: what do with yourself- what then is the individual to do in turbulent times such as these?

What indeed. That, perhaps more than anything is going to be what I'm wrestling with this year. What can I do to contribute something, anything to my personal growth and prosperity? Do I want to do what I'm doing forever and if not, what comes next? Essentially, the never-ending quest to figure out what to do to fill up the hours of one's life continues. At a certain point, I'm sure something will rise to the occasion and blow all the rest out of the water, but in the meantime trying everything possible should be a lot more fun than it currently is, I think. I'll have to work on that.

But in the meantime, according to Wikipedia (the font of all knowledge), here are some things you probably didn't know about 2012:
It's a Leap Year

The United Nations has declared it the International Year of Cooperatives (I might have to learn my NewPi number for once...) and the International Year of Sustainable Energy For All (Ha!)

It's also the Alan Turing Year- celebrating the centennial of his birth.

February 6th marks Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 60 years on the throne.

July 27th will mark the opening of the Summer Olympics in London.

Curiosity is set to land on Mars sometime in early August.

China should get back into space again.

There might (or might not) be a new President come November.

And of course, the current baktun of the Mayan Long Count Calendar ends on December 21st. (Craziest theory I ever saw- in Prairie Lights, no less was that the Angels that rebelled against God, including Lucifer were exiled to other planets and soon they'll be able to contact us again. I'm not sure I like that notion.)

So either we're all doomed and you might as well live it up this year or it'll be just another year. Another year to learn, grow and generally live the shit out of life. (I like that: live the shit out of it. I think we should add that to the general lexicon of 2012. 2012: Live The Shit Out It- has a better connotation that beating the shit out of it does, don't you think?)

Anyway: I'll see you kids on the other side of the great cosmic apocalypse/convergence in 2013- thanks to the 12 of you that care enough about The Cigar to look at it every once in awhile. Hopefully by the end of the year, there will be more of you.