There has been some effort recently to denounce predictions of the end of the world this year (2012) based on the Mayan calendar. While it is true that the end of a cycle doesn't mean the end of the world, there is plenty of other evidence that 2012 is going to be a time of change. For the most part, this evidence is not the type that is acceptable to the scientific or the skeptical person . When you look only at individual prophecies from various people of the past or present, you often find little to indicate that 2012 is of any particular significance but, when you put them all together, you come up with a clear indication that (1) we are now in what is usually called “The End Times”, a name that bothers some people because it implies to them that the world is ending but that is a misinterpretation, it means the end of the era of materialism, and (2) we are entering a new age, a spiritual age, a golden age in which we will value the proper care of the planet and each other as more important than making money.

    “So,” some will ask, “why should I care? When it happens and I have to change, I will.” Unfortunately, it is not going to be that simple. We are already seeing change taking place with our climate, with the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, and that will continue and increase. And those who make the effort to change NOW and help the process along will benefit for it. Those who choose to ignore it and hide under the bed until it goes away, or until they can no longer avoid it,  will instead find that their world is gone and that, they are either already dead, or are ill-equipped to survive in this new world. And this is true of businesses and corporations as well as individuals. What happened in 2008 through 2011 should have convinced them to start doing business in a different way that goes along with the changes in the world, but instead they are trying to bring back those days before the recession that are gone forever.

    The new age is upon us, whether we like it or not, and we must change and become part of it or die like fish out of water.