Must've Done Something Right

This is going - well, not exactly viral, but it's behaving more like a stripy codename video:

Of course, in some ways it's more like an Other Channel video than the usual fare here, so maybe that's not surprising.  Presumably i've managed to capture the Zeitgeist.  As a result, i'm delaying the next video on the grounds that i want to give this one breathing space.  I've also made "Why I Don't Wear Women's Clothes" a response to it.

So, "brazenness, audacity, notoriety, entertainment, uniqueness, ostentation, incredulity, spectacle, never gets old, ridicule".  These are the key features of the Other Channel which lead to its success, abstracted from the subject matter.  They are, i think, what led to it getting picked up by blogs, fark, 4chan and the rest, and of course the videos on it also have re-watch value, and i can even attach merchandise to them, which is quite an achievement.  These qualities can also be linked to the above video.  I also made it public at 10 pm, which might have been right for North America, and it's still topical.  It's also in "HowTo and Style" rather than "People And Blogs", which probably helps - the second most popular video in the former today is six times more popular than the second most popular in the latter (the voting one is not really in the right place - it should be in "News And Politics").

Anyway, today's video is here, and of course as of yet it's unlisted:

It is of course about the end of the Long Count, or rather, the Long Count "going round the clock" after nearly three zagier years.  Here's the paraphrase:

In a way, the Mayan 2012 prophecy is incorrect, but then again it could be made to be correct.  Bear with me please.

First of all, the Maya themselves did not believe the world would end on 21st December 2012.  There are inscriptions on their monuments using the Long Count Calendar thousands of years in the future from 2012.  The significance of the Long Count is that it represents the end of a cycle, rather similar to our year 2000 or the astrological system of ages.

There is no apparent astronomical sign suggesting anything unusual.  The Coalsack Nebula is not particularly significant, nor is Xibalba.  Mercury, Venus and the Sun will be aligned, but that happens on a regular basis, several times every one of our years in fact.  There seems to be nothing significant at all about the positions of the bodies in the outer Solar System.

Nonetheless, this is an opportunity.  If enough of us believe that we can make a difference and change the world for the better, we can use this date to "lever" the world into a better position by changing our own lives, being the change we want to see, undertaking random acts of kindness and loving the world.  As John Lennon once said, "war is over if you want it".  That's what I think we should do, and we can make that happen.  So how about it?

I agree this is a simplistic message, but sometimes things are that simple.  I have no idea if this would work but i'm taking a leap of faith and deciding to believe that it will.  There's very little to lose at this point.

Some background information.  First of all, here is what i call the Stone of the Fifth Sun:

(this is a coloured replica).  This has hardly any connection to the Long Count calendar (although it has some).  To be honest, this reminds me of a bone saw with its major negative cathexis, except of course that compared to this, a bone saw's cathexis is virtually zero.  The Aztec calendar, as it happened, forecast that the world would end in 1519, which was pretty on the nose for them since it was when Hernando Cortes (whose name i mispronounce) turned up.  There's also talk of white people coming from the East using a symbolic cross, but i'm not sure about that and in fact i sometimes wonder how accurate the Spanish account of the Aztec civilisation is.  If it's remotely accurate, it is at least an example of how organised Christianity can actually improve circumstances in some ways, which is the main reason i'm suspicious.

Now for the 11:11 am GMT on 7AB6 thing.  Here's a diagram of the inner Solar System on that date:

The chief interesting phenomenon in this picture is that Venus, Mercury and the Sun are all lined up.  However, this happens regularly - i'm guessing it happens at least twice a year.  Nor is Earth anywhere near them, although astrologically there might be a significant angle.

Here's the Moon:

The only interesting thing about this is how uninteresting it is.  It's neither a new Moon nor a full Moon and therefore nowhere near either a lunar or solar eclipse.

This is the outer Solar System (sort of):

I can't see much interesting there, although pareidolia might lead me to make some spurious connections if i let it.

Finally, here's the Coal Sack:

Whereas it is probably unusually far north in the planet's sky due to the fact that it's the winter solstice, again i can't see much of interest.

However, this is not the point!  The point is that we can just decide it's a significant event and act accordingly.  However, the key is in the word "act", unless we're talking about stopping doing things we shouldn't.  Enough people believing in this and acting together could make a difference even if there's nothing "real" going on.  So we should use it as an inspiration, not reject it just because we think it's New Age rubbish.