Is This the Beginning of the End?

Type “December 21, 2012” into Google and you’ll get nearly 10 million results. Nowhere near the attention of some of the world’s best known names or phrases, like, “Jesus Christ,” or “Buddha,” both of which garner more than 120 million results, or “Mohamed,” with over 200 million results. And although he didn’t found a major religion, “Napoleon” has more than 96 million results.

But the date beats other references, such as “United States Constitution,” with roughly 8.5 million results, and “Joan of Arc,” which yields nearly 9.5 million results. “Mayans,” the group that’s perhaps most related to that doomsday date, get 6.1 million results.

“Nostradamus,” also widely credited with predicting Dec. 21, 2012, as the end of times, yields 18 million-plus results. But he had a lot of other things on his plate beside the end of days.

I would bet it’d be hard to predict whether insurance — that word gets 245 million results, thank you very much big advertisers — will pick up or slow down as doomsday nears. Will people decide that, if the world’s about to end, what’s the point to getting insurance? Or will a large number of people worry that something real bad will happen, but not bad enough to bring about the end, and therefore go out and get insurance?

Or will the vast majority of people go on writing off Dec. 21, 2012, as merely a subject for a handful of people with too much free time?

If you’ve got a prediction, or a thought or two on the subject, feel free to email me at djergler@insurancejournal.com. If I get enough responses, it may warrant a story on www.insurancejournal.com, or in the pages of an upcoming Insurance Journal issue, so be sure and include your full name, company and title.

I have a prediction, and it’s an easy one. We’ll have our eyes and ears full of this date in the coming year — which will come and go, leaving us with other big dates to look forward to — and as the date nears more people, even those who swore not to do so, will talk about it.

NASA even has a take on the topic, posted in a Q&A, “2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won’t End?” with scientists on its website: “Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.”