Traverse City Record-Eagle

Other Views

January 7, 2012

Another view: OK to be optimistic

The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.)

T.S. Eliot once

wrote that the

world will end

“not with a bang, but a

whimper.” But he didn’t

say exactly how it would

occur, or when.

These days, 2012 has

become the popular date.

And the forms of destruction

are varied.

The most popular endof-

the-world scenario is

probably the one associated

with the centuries-old

Mayan calendar, which

ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

The prediction is that

the sun’s polarity will

change, and with it, there

goes the neighborhood.

But there are many other

apocalyptic scenarios

for 2012. Somewhere out

there are people warning

that a sinister planet (they

call it “Planet X”) will

collide with Earth during

this calendar year.

In India, a certain guru

called Kalki Bhagavan

has promoted 2012 as the

“deadline” for human enlightenment

— the end of

the “degenerate” age.

Whatever that means, it

doesn’t sound good.

But while all these

things may be true, it’s far

too early to go all negative

on 2012.

Let us be optimistic at

this point, at least, that

2012 will be better than

2011. And let us remember

that humanity has

not lost its capacity for

improvement.

 

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