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Doomsday upon us? See you Saturday

Another year is coming to an end. It feels like only yesterday that we welcomed 2012, but 11 days from now, the Year of the Black Dragon will pass. About this time of the year, I always feel solemn as the beginning and end may be futile. It is an unchanging truth that all beginnings have an end and all ends will bring another beginning.

As the end of the year approaches, believers of doomsday theories are at full swing. The Mayan calendar began in 3114 BC and completes its 5,125-year cycle tomorrow. Some believe that is when the world will end. As the earth had its beginning, it will most assuredly meet its end someday, but surely not tomorrow.

Nancy Lanza, the mother of Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman Adam Lanza, was a member of the Doomsday Preppers movement. To get ready for the day when civilization collapses, she had secured food and firearms. There are analyses that suggest her apocalyptic belief might have influenced her son’s crime. The knife-wielding man who attacked 22 elementary school children in China a few days ago also was affected by doomsday theory. The southern French commune of Bugarach in the Languedoc-Roussillon region is rumored to be the only place in the world that will be spared in the coming apocalypse, attracting cult followers and doomsday believers from around the world.

Psy’s Gangman Style phenomenon has also been interpreted as a sign of apocalypse. Sixteenth century French seer Nostradamus wrote, “From the calm morning, the end will come when of the dancing horse the number of circles will be nine.” The dancing horse refers to Psy’s horse dance, and nine circles mean one billion YouTube views, according to those who give credence to such things.

Then the end of the world will begin from Korea, “land of the morning calm.” Some predict that the YouTube views of the “Gangnam Style” video will break one billion tomorrow. As of Tuesday, the total number of views was 972 million.

According to the prophesies of Nostradamus, the world should have ended in 1999, 13 years ago. Those who still believe the world is nearing its end have infinite imagination.

The election for the 18th president of the Republic of Korea was held yesterday. The five years of the Lee Myung-bak administration virtually ends, and a new power arises. No matter who wins the election, the victory marks the beginning for a new ending. No matter who is defeated, it will be the beginning of a new journey. Nothing lasts forever in this world.

* The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

by Bae Myung-bok