Prophecy for Profit

One day, every child learns that Father Christmas doesn’t exist, but how do you recover from discovering that he was put to work as a Coca-Cola poster boy? Hark ye! It wasn’t singing angels heralding the birth of our lord but dancing Santas, festive bargains and Christmas number ones, followed by specials on weight loss plans and detox tea.

I can cope with shattered dreams as well as the next man who grew up in the 80s, but what about dreams repackaged and sold back to me? Look closely, children of the nightmare. Shining lights in toy shop windows guide wide-eyed wonder to plastic tack moulded in toxic sweat shops. We adore children with kingly gifts, making a pilgrimage into debt as we seed them with our greed. This is mythology at the mercy of the market, folklore flogged by Snow White Barbie and the seven Disney dwarves, Satan’s claws deep into Santa Claus.

Our yearly celebration of unbridled capitalism leaves Xmas trees discarded in the street. It generates enough wrapping paper to cover Guernsey. It generates enough moolah for British toy companies to be registered in Guernsey, but not enough goodwill for them to pay British tax. Mary trekked to Bethlehem to pay her taxes, and gave birth in a stable. Tesco trekked offshore to evade taxes, and NHS maternity beds will be cut in 2012 as they were in 2011.

“When thou makest a dinner… call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; … call the poor, the maimed” (Luke 14:12-13). This, surely, is the real Christmas spirit, so why are Orlando police arresting Food not Bombs for running soup kitchens in a public park? Why does the biggest share of Christmas pudding go to banker bonuses, leaving thruppence for the poor man who gets the lucky slice? “If ye have not got a groat, ye can go and cut your throat, and ne’er have any figgy, figgy duff.”

So 2012 begins with more austerity after the binge. Experts predict another recession – it seems obvious, because no new year’s resolutions emerged from the government, and post-capitalism is as rotten as ever. However, as 2012 rolls around, the world’s first ever global uprising is still rising. Oakland’s port blockade went international, and systemic greed and is under attack from all sides in the media. Occupations are being evicted, but a hundred thousand are on the streets of Moscow, and Chinese villagers have occupied a Communist party office.

Hope is in the air, children of the dream. Which is why all this talk of 2012 ascension is so troubling.

If you don’t mix with new agers, then let me fill you in: next year Christmas comes early, because on December 21st 2012, the Mayan calendar comes to an end. Whilst the modern Maya attach no special significance to this date, a popular New Age narrative does. There are many variations, but generally people who have been nice to each other or “in their hearts” or something get sucked up to Sirius or the fifth dimension or somewhere, whilst everyone else is at the mercy of some disaster, which may be ecological, military, or involving earth being hit by a planet predicted in Sumerian carvings (and covered up by NASA).

Now this looks to me like a tiny speck of disputed Mesoamerican archeology fused with a rather cinematic understanding of Biblical prophesy, with the veneer of Father Christmas rewarding good little children, but then I believe some pretty nutty things myself. I think we are in the middle of “an” apocalypse (rather than in the lead-up to “the” apocalypse). The veil (kalyptein) is falling (apo), and new technologies and new possibilities are coming into focus. New ideas span new networks from Tahir Square to Time Square, new fusions give hope to the outcasts of old empires. Finally we can see what democracy looks like. We can broadcast it as well.

And happily, for a reverend with a poetic approach to scripture, most of the portents are straight out of Revelations: military proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, food price instability and systemic oil addiction, electronic wallets and pin numbers, polluted waters, ozone depletion, and international corporate greed. (Rev 6:2-4, 6:5-6, 13:16, 16:3-4, 16:8, 18:11-15) You can read poetry however you like, of course – that’s the point. Note that the good book sets no date, and cautions against seeking one. (Dan 12:6-8).

Perhaps there is something to the Mayan story, and to other ancient prophesies, who knows? Terrence McKenna had a brilliant mind, and there may be something in his 2012 novelty explosion, but he and his brother (and co-author) never agreed on what it might be, and the maths looks a bit shaky. What is clear, in both scripture and history, is that false prophets are not harmless. All six failed Jehovah’s Witness predictions led the faithful to postpone life saving operations, to blow their pensions or neglect to plant their fields. We have NHS cuts, rapacious politicians and common agricultural policies to do that for us now, so we can safely ignore our prophets.

The 2012 myth isn’t convincing, but it is well marketed, and that is why people buy it. Wishful thinking and Hollywood special effects combine to make good capitalism, but bad theology. Looking forward to a date is like looking forward to an election – nothing changes unless you change it yourself. If we want dignified futures, we have to organize our own presents, because Santa ain’t coming down the chimney, but we can occupy abandoned buildings and repossessed houses ourselves. No one is coming up through the ballot box, but we can hold our own assemblies and organize ourselves.

Occupy was an immaculate conception, born of an impoverished body politic fertilized by a potent spirit, entirely without input from our patriarchs – a word made flesh. The baby was born completely dependent and under persecution of the evil king, its only power to shout its displeasure, stumbling as it takes its first steps, and soiling itself. The St Paul’s camp will be killed off, sooner or later, but when that happened in New York and Oakland, and bloodied martyrs hit the blogosphere, it galvanized support. Occupy was reborn on a different dimension, an idea moving through and empowering far more people than slept on the streets, ready to manifest for actions and then disappear. We survived through the solstice, and as winter retreats and the light begins to return, there may be some extraordinary developments to come.

Read more from Reverend Nemu at www.nemusend.co.uk