by Isabel Paterson ‘12

 Theories about the world ending in 2012 have been in the air for a while now. Some look at it as more of a joke, something to poke fun at or use in a punch line. Something bad happens and usually there is that one person in the group who says, “Oh it’s okay guys, we’re all going to die in 2012 anyways.” I’ve been that joker many a time, but the fact of the matter is, some weird stuff has gone down lately. No, no, this column won’t turn into a warning that aliens are coming to take over our planet or that we will all simultaneously combust on December 21, 2012. But there is a serious matter to address here.

    Even pop-stars have noticed. Jay Sean themed one of his songs around 2012 with a chorus saying, “We gonna party like, party like it’s the end of the world. We gonna party like, like its 2012.” It’s pretty clear these celebrities view the idea of 2012 as a marketable event.

  However, we must all at least acknowledge that this year, leading up to 2012 hasn’t been the best. Record-breaking natural disasters, along with civil strife and revolution, have been filling the news lately. It is naïve to think there won’t be retribution for killing Osama bin Laden. Our government almost shut down over a budget. There were 620 tornadoes in just the month of April, a record breaking high since 1925. The earthquake in Haiti, the flooding in the Philippines, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This might not be the end of the world, but it’s definitely not the start of a lively upbeat one.

    There is a thought lingering in the back of my mind that these disasters will become less rare and less of a shock. I’m hoping 2012 will prove me wrong, but if we keep going on this path of natural destruction and violence, it’s not just the disasters I worry about. What will it do to our perception of disaster? In 10 years, will an incident such as an earthquake, like the one in Japan, be considered a horrible disaster or will it eventually become the norm? Will revolutions happen monthly, like the ones in Libya and Egypt? Will rivers flood regularly like the Mississippi just did? And how will we respond?

   No, I do not personally believe we will all vanish or die on December 21, 2012. However, something seems to be going on, call it global warming if you’d like, blame it on us or technology or say it’s due to pollution or  that we’re corrupted by politicians. Whatever it is, it’s getting a lot of attention by the media and our culture. I worry that this fluky year with a very high death count isn’t just a fluke. I worry that this will soon become the norm, and we won’t even notice.