There’s a small stormy teacup about the Mayan calendar coming to an end – a civilisation that used rope to keep track of time and came to an end themselves before they ran out of rope. It seems that the wisdom of the moment is that the Mayans had some secret insight into how much rope was required to reach the end of the world. (The Mayan rope runs out on the solstice, just in time to steal Christmas this year.)
Think about it: an ancient civilisation that left cryptic records is credited with having knowledge that we don’t. Is this credible? Maybe a little. We don’t know what they knew. It is possible that they knew something we don’t. If they wrote about it, then we should pay attention to their writings. Of course, if they only left some rope, we are limited to paying attention to their rope.
There are other ancient writings containing forgotten knowledge that are not as popular, and yet have more credibility and interesting detail. I have in my book shelf a document recording a recent origin of the world, and a global catastrophe that wiped out the entire population. The same book that states this as history also promises a more permanent cataclysm to sort out the entire created order – the end of the world.
While people are briefly taking the Mayans seriously, not a word is being said about the real end of the world, and few are making preparations of the appropriate sort.
