One can look at the magical date - 21.12.2012 - in different ways. Yet, no one will be able to ignore it. The end of the world in the "traditional" sense advertised by Hollywood will probably not happen. However, this is a very important page in the history of mankind. Waiting for the "X hour," the Americans are digging bunkers and buying canned food. How are the Russians getting ready?
A historian and ethnographer Pavel Zarifullin began his lecture with the optimistic title "The End of the World: live on!" by reciting a funny dialogue he overheard in a store. A woman berated her friend for not coming to her salon for a haircut and going elsewhere. The "betrayer" answered: "You were all booked until December 22. Did you expect me to celebrate the end of the world with my hair not done?"
The response, according to Pavel Zarifullin, is the embodiment of the attitude of the Russian people towards such a difficult subject as the end of the world. They view it not as a tragedy but rather a new and joyful event that you would want to get ready for.
This kind of attitude is rooted in the national mentality and history.
Incidentally, Russians were involved in the history of the Maya. It was a brilliant Russian linguist Yuri Knorozov who in 1960 managed to decipher the writing of the disappeared people, which helped their descendants to learn about their predictions. Prior to that, the scientific community believed that this was not possible. Yuri Knorozov did not even have to fly to Mexico to do it.
Maya, on the one hand, were very dark and bloodthirsty people. They sacrificed human hearts to their gods, cutting them out of the body of a living person with an obsidian knife. Hearts of children and beautiful boys and girls were particularly appreciated. At the same time, the Maya had a very deep knowledge of astronomy. They had several calendars - lunar, Venusian, and Martian. But most importantly, the Maya knew what precession was.
Ordinary people can learn about precession in a simple way, by pushing a top. While rotating, its axis will move in a spiral. But to guess that the Earth is moving in the same way, the Mayans had to be very advanced in astronomy. The Mayans not only guessed it, they also calculated the exact date of the completion of the cycle of precession: December 21, 2012
On that day, our planet will rotate in such a way that it will be in line with Alpha Sagittarius. This is the center of the galaxy, a very mysterious place. According to some sources, there is a black hole, while others say it is a unique "living laboratory" where new heavenly bodies emerge.
Once upon a time, approximately 12-13 thousand years ago, the center of the galaxy made a very serious impact on terrestrial life. According to an Egyptian legend, it was lit up with bright blue light for several months. This resulted in the strongest fires first, and then - flooding due to the melting of glaciers that then covered much of the Earth.
Today, scientists are finding entire graveyards of bones of large animals - mammoths, unicorns, and saber-toothed tigers. It is clear that they died at once, without any possibility of escape. Myths and legends of the Deluge have been preserved by nearly all nations of the Earth, which also confirms the reality of this event. Incidentally, after the flood there was a real surge in the human population. Mammoths and saber-toothed tigers were replaced by people.
What would it be this time? Pavel Zarifullin believes that the fate of mammoths does not threaten the humanity. Yet, very important changes are inevitable. "50 years ago, Western civilization lived with a sense of optimism: we flew into space, landed on the Moon, etc. But then something happened. If the Soviet Union in 1991 experienced a real local apocalypse and the reasons for optimism were shattered, the West with no apparent reason came to the idea of the death of their civilization," said the historian.
This is confirmed by a drastic change in the priorities of the movie industry. The main characters of American cartoons are now Indian princess Pocahontas and strange-looking Shrek. One of the major film of recent years was "Avatar," where the character "betrayed" his people and became a supporter of a local tribe. White people are no longer saviors and progressive creators, they are evil from which we must defend.
"Death of the West is now the main theme on the intellectual agenda of Western society," Pavel Zarifullin said. His statement is grounded. The philosophical systems the Western civilization has been creating since the time of Plato no longer work. The basic values of the society are ridiculed and rejected. However, nihilists offer nothing in return except destruction.
According to Zarifullin, "it is getting increasingly more difficult for the old gods to do their job." But the multinational corporations that control the world will not voluntarily change the existing rules because it is not beneficial for them. Hence, the changes will take place by force.
The historian believes that for the Russians, the end of the world is native environment. For the last 500 years the Russians have been living with this world view. In 1472, Moscow Russia awaited the end of the world because it was year 7,000 according to the Byzantine calendar. Ivan the Terrible introduced life guards because he was waiting for the end of time, too, and wanted to separate the "clean" from the "unclean."
1666 is the date of the informal division of the Russian Orthodox Church that resulted in the emergence of old believers who lived with the expectation of the end of the world and saw the riddance of the king, the Antichrist, in this event. After that, all civil wars in Russia - Stepan Razin's, Yemelyan Pugachev's - were led under the Old Believers' flag.
It is no wonder that millions - the descendants of Old Believers - joined the Red Army, which was about a third of the population of the Russian Empire. "The revolution of 1917 was seen as the end of the world and at the same time, purification, a new life," said Pavel Zarifullin. The Bolsheviks skillfully played on these massive expectations.
The Russians, hardened throughout the history, are not fearful. They await the end of the world by going to a hairdresser. Everyone else should prepare for the end of the world - in a sense, the familiar, traditional, "old" world will be gone. What kind of new world we will get will be clear after December 21.
Svetlana Smetanina
Pravda.Ru