Indeed, the world will end in 2012. In full earth-shattering, ground breaking glory.

Skyscrapers, grey-haired grand-parents and pet Chihuahuas will be swallowed up by the earth. And giant tsunamis will sweep everything and everyone but politicians away…

Such is the bleak picture painted by Roland Emmerich in his latest blockbuster 2012 movie, now showing at a cinema near you.

The movie enjoyed a tremendous response from moviegoers around the world. Tickets were sold out in most cineplexes in the first week of its release. 2012 also beat all rivals at the American box office, where the loosely Maya-inspired tale of the world’s end totted up nearly half of all box-office receipts in its opening weekend.

It has become almost formulaic for filmmakers: if they want a box-office success, they know the movie should focus on either blood thirsty creatures of the undead variety, body-snatching aliens, a genetically enhanced Britney Spears, the end of the world, or all of the above.

There was one movie earlier this year alluding to the annihilation of mankind and life in a post-apocalyptic world – Terminator: Salvation. There has been many more in the past – 12 Monkeys (1995), Planet of the Apes (1968 and 2001), and Armageddon (1998), to name just three…

Since the dawn of time, people have been obsessed with the end of time. There has been many predictions and prophecies from well-known figures, religions and cultures.

Some years – 1666, 1999, 2000, 2012, and 2096 – have come up more often than most. But they all have one thing in common: none so far have come true.

1666, so chosen due to its vague connection with the number of the Beast of Revelation, came and went.

So did 1999. It certainly wasn’t the end either for Apple that year, who launched the first iBook, or for Lance Armstrong winning his first Tour de France!

What has also been noted is that doom-saying is de rigeur at the end of every millennium.

Late in the year 999, many had thought the world would end at the stroke of midnight bringing in the year 1000 AD. It was said that so many Europeans were convinced that the world was going to end that they burnt their crops, slaughtered animals, and prepared to die. The world didn’t end that year.

The same Millennial  madness surfaced when the year 2000 approached. It was believed that a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions would occur due to the failure of computers to recognize the year 2000.

Doomsayers predicted that civilization as we know it would come to an end, as everything we depended on technologically would grind to a halt. It did not.

Y2K was, in the end, only a minor problem because everyone saw it coming and had everything fixed ahead of time. Computers did not crash, planes flew, businesses continued to operate, and millennium babies were born.

But our morbid fascination with the End of Days persists. So much so, it has even become part of popular culture. People now flock to cinemas and pay good money (sometimes an astronomical $25/18 EUR for some seats) to witness the many horrific ways, in which our world, and its occupants, could die.

Just what is it about the apocalypse that so fires the imagination? Why do people persists in their predictions and preoccupation with the end of the world?

The answer to that is probably the same as why people are fascinated by grotesque imagery of decapitated limbs, bursting guts and supermodel Megan Fox.

It is catharsis.

It reminds us everything is impermanent, and that we should be grateful for what we have. It tells us how badly things can turn out, and that we ought to be thankful to just be alive; not careening headlong to the center of the Earth, running away from hairy beasts, or impregnated with alien spawn.

The year 2012 will likely just come and go, as years do. The London Summer Olympics will be held that year. It will also be Queen Elizabeth II’s 60^th accession to the throne anniversary. There will be a total solar eclipse on November 13^th.

What amazing things do you see your self doing  that year?

Until then, continue to Live with Passion and Attract Your Dreams!