2012 and the Suspension of Reason

"...That which we do not understand only appears irrelevant..."

My wife and I went to see Mr Emmerich's latest offering on opening night.
Given his movie credits thus far, we were unsurprised to discover that he had taken on the idea of 2012 and the myths surrounding it. We have a copy of the book we suspect this film to be inspired by, and it is a fabulous read.
That said, the film left us a little disappointed, from the science end of things. For example, if the sun were to be emitting CME's of the size described in the early part of the film, we would be seeing auroras of a biblical scale. This little detail was not shown, although I could certainly see that some things had to be left on the cutting-room floor. The visuals are breathtaking, however, and the oblique reference to the uranium deposit under the Yellowstone Caldera, in the form of the nature of the explosion once the park begins to unzip, was a direct reference to the above-mentioned book (Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence Joseph). We also noted the extremely fast reference to Ontario as being a source of confirmation for the neutrino activity being observed in India; this is, of course, a nod to the neutrino counter in Sudbury.
Little details that make a film worth seeing, and make me happy to notice them. A great film, and definitely worth the seven bucks to see in theatre...
The rather rare effort by NASA to debunk the 2012 mythos and calm any panic that was released on Wednesday last week disappointed me somewhat. NASA essentially went through some questions, dealing with our passage through the plane of the ecliptic and the possible existence of Nibiru, and in each case defended it's assertion that nothing will happen three years from now by asking 'Where's the science? Where is the evidence? Where is the proof?'
Absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence, and only a complete fool would presume otherwise. NASA said that no credible scientist in any way supported the idea that something of a deleterious nature will occur around the magical end-date of the current Mayan calendar. My wife and I have assertions from credible scientists saying exactly the opposite, but recall the revised version of Newton's Third Law: For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert.
What I find arrogant about this is that NASA is displaying the hallmarks of institutionalised science world-wide: we will conveniently ignore and ridicule anything that does not conveniently fit with current models. There is tenure at stake, people. Careers and reputations to defend. Government and private sector funding to secure. Money to be made using the old paradigm.
I am to understand that, in the august opinion of NASA, remarks and writings made thousands of years ago by peoples belonging to civilisations that a) lasted a lot longer than ours and b) achieved things that we cannot equal with all our technology and expertise, are to be simply regarded as irrelevant and without merit or value because we cannot comfortably understand them? Information that has been, against all odds, placed into our hands at the end of a three-thousand-year cultural relay race is to be discounted out-of-hand because to acknowledge it would threaten the very underpinnings of our society? The ancients knew nothing? They were simply playing games? Ignorant savages that just happened to know a thing or two about architecture that lasts?
Every ancient culture we have a name for tells essentially the same story: at around this time, the planet undergoes another iteration of a cyclical process, a renewal of sorts, that marks the end of one age and the beginning of another. Even a casual study of evolution shows this same process: long periods of evolutionary fun and games during which fish turn to amphibia turn to mammals, and then a comparatively brief but intense period of global change that wipes the slate clean for the next stage of development. Real estate developers do this all the time, razing existing buildings to powder to make way for spanky new buildings that promise even more.
In our estimation, 2012 and the years surrounding it do not mean the end of the world. This planet is busy with its own agenda, and change is as much a part of that as the water cycle. It does, however mean the end of our world, since things are at the point now where even small changes have enourmous effects on our incredibly complex and thus fragile human society. The human world cannot hope to withstand even a percentage of what was depicted in the film, and the Maya foretold far worse, as did the Hopi, the Maori, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, the ancient Japanese...
Let me underscore something. Complexity in any system is directly proportional to the fragility of that system. Humans have placed themselves at enourmous risk by inducing incalculable complexity into our way of life in spite of the obstacles posed by the earth and its vagaries. By assuming as an article of faith that the world is our dominion and we are here to use it for our exclusive needs and bollocks to everything else, we have also assumed that we understand this planet in its entirety and it holds no surprises. Anything we do not understand is thus irrelevant. NASA's vaunted science is beginning, and only beginning, to suspect that there is much more to this world than we thought. Our ability to see certain things, like earth processes and cycles, was obscured by the fact that such processes generally thumb their noses at puny human lifetimes, instead unfolding over much longer periods of time. The only way we can see them is through the medium of our unique ability to transfer information from generation to generation; we call this 'cultural inheritance' and it is an awesome power.
If institutional science is left in charge, we appear to be guilty of squandering that inheritance.
The Socratic Paradox is a double-edged sword. It's conclusions can paralyse or liberate, depending on the humility of the observer. Unfortunately, the epitaph of our species will likely not include the word 'humble', as we are anything but.
We are paralysed, and the time for study has run out.
I realise that this little blog will change nothing, and that the human world will run its course unhindered by reason or common sense or even a little humility. I just wanted to throw this out there into the void, so that at least I can say I said it.