The 2012 Mid-Year Review

Three years ago, I created the “2012: Mayan Prophecy and the Shift of Ages” DVD with Geoff Stray. With six months to go before that fateful date, where are we?
In 2009, the 2012 phenomenon was different – in fact, the world was different. At the time, we underlined that 2012 was not about apocalyptic end times, but instead about social change, specifically a change that had begun in 1993: the creation of the global village and which was slowly maturing – or so it seemed.
In June 2012, the world is a global village, but is also suffering the effects – it is, it seems, acting like the proverbial teenager. The first “village experiment” that began in 2001, the Eurozone, is now fighting for its future. The international banking community has pushed the world from a path of expansion to one of austerity. Rich bankers got us into this mess, but it are ordinary people that are as always paying the price. Life in Greece is a true tragedy, most of which is not reported by the foreign media.
The Eurozone stroke has made it clear that we are at a crossroads. Trying to maintain the old system is simply impossible. Greece might be expelled, or leave, but the larger question is whether the rest of the zone is equally cancerous.
Interestingly, while all of this was happening, one of the larger culprits in the banking crisis, the Royal Bank of Scotland, provided over the summer solstice a scenario in which millions of people in Britain had no access to their money. Whether it was the software glitch they blamed or a sociological test, a money-less society became a reality for a week across the United Kingdom for millions. And despite hardship, everyone survived, there were no revolts, and the government did not even have to intervene!
It is a signal that it can be different. At some point, the world – reality – became dominated by a virtual structure – money – which rose as the mechanism through which we were handling social exchanges. Then it became the mechanism for all exchanges. In recent decades, however, some have accumulated money without any true social exchange or added-value and this has led both to the troubles the world is facing, as well as, let us not forget, the millions of people dying because some continents have no money whatsoever and apparently humanity cannot rise above the virtual money game to truly help them.
We are slaves of this virtual reality, which we take for real. But this reality is collapsing all around us. And its engineers – the banks and politicians – have lost control of the monster. They try to bandaid a dead corpse and this will only last a short while longer before this approach will become unsustainable.
What we need is a plan for the future. What no-one can offer is a plan for the future, because everyone thinks from within the confines of the money paradigm, and especially the stalemate in which the money game has cornered itself. Meanwhile, politicians are all about defending and stressing the importance of borders, for it are those virtual lines on maps and landscapes that keep them in their jobs.
Those of us with jobs, are largely dissatisfied and largely told they should be happy they have a job, even though that job is unchanging and unlikely to exchange in the years to come. There are millions of unhappy people with no idea where the next step will go or come from and spend eight hours daily in this soul-destroying monotony. But they are unable to leave the game, because this money game has made sure they can’t: loans, mortgages, paying for children’s education and like are but one of several binders that keep people financial prisoners. Prosperity as a slogan now rings hollow and democracy the way it is experienced is quickly following in its track.
There is a void in people’s life and in 2012, we feel it. And it is far larger than the economy. There is a spiritual void. A void that was created by a nihilistic science that refused to explore the larger questions of life for the past several decades.
We need to go back to basics and create a world in which we invite changes to make a better world. We should be thinking about redefining a new world, based on the birth of the global village, but we are wrapped up in fear as we are told that these austerity measures are required for our own survival in this global village. Not true. In fact, they are what is killing us. They are limiting our chances of survival, or at least, halting us in our tracks, indefinitely, until the spell of the “money charm” is broken and we see reality the way it is. And realize we need to define a new reality. And that is the true message of 2012 and it is happening in 2012, right now. The question is whether we are making this a passive game or become active players.