I guess it is comforting for certain types of people to dream that one day, all that they deem to be nasty, unworthy people will get their comeuppance, and that all the "good" people (as they typically think of themselves) will be “saved”. But 2012 will come and go just like any other year. All the main protagonists will broadcast their excuses, everyone else will try to save face by fudging the issue, and the following generation will prepare their script for the next date. 2020 perhaps? That's a nice round number, or what about 2050? Bit too far away I suppose, but a nice date for future generations.
I don't think there's much reason to believe anything really spectacular will occur on any particular date in 2012, but in the upcoming years leading into and centered around 2012 a lot may take place (I agree that nobody really knows). I don't think it'll really be a matter of 'good people being saved' either. If these events actually take place, a lot of everybody will die regardless and it would be hard to tell exactly who.
An event like Yellowstone erupting, for example, would cause millions if not billions around the world to die, mostly because all the food grown in the midwest would suffer from a blocking out of sunlight, but also because of massive climate change and of course the 500-mile diameter of carnage from fire and ash (
http://whyfiles.org/shorties/083giant_volc/ <-- last major eruption info,
http://exodus2006.com/supervol.html <-- more eruption info). That's not a threat that should be taken for granted, either, since Yellowstone has been showing activity in recent years that goes beyond causing those geysers that tourists love so much (
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/activity.html <-- regularly updated Yellowstone activity information). A recent quake in Alaska gave an eerie foreshadowing of what a nearby eruption might spark Yellowstone to do (
http://www.seis.utah.edu/RecentNews/YNP-11042002.shtml ). It's also had regular massive eruptions every few thousand years or so, and I think it's now overdue by its average. It would be considerably worse than Mt. St. Helens (also showing activity again lately,
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/09/29/mount.st.helens/ ), and right over our breadbasket. Maybe people will be a little more open to the idea of events like this after the tsunamis in Asia and Africa, which were also warned against but just not expected to do much damage (Do I even need to link to any additional info?).
I think
those are the sorts of events, at least natural-disaster wise, that are going to lead us into 2012 and maybe a little beyond. Hand-in-hand with those events would be political events dealing with the rising tension in the Mid-East, with Bush possibly preparing for a war in Iran (
http://www.etherzone.com/2004/lang112204.shtml ,
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/is_iran_next/ ), which is
known to have WMDs and will use them against us, and other eastern countries while at home outrage is still being suppressed by propoganda in the media (
http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Propaganda/Iraq.asp ,
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dmccarthy/dmccarthy36.html ) while more and more people are waking up and realizing what's going on politically in the world. It wouldn't take a history major to realize that this obviously sets the stage for some civil conflict at home, as well as huge problems abroad.
North Korea has also been exaggerated as a dire threat, which would suggest the media was setting the stage for war there as well, and tensions between the US and Russia may again be picked up as Putin recently announced the development of a new weapon capable of hitting the US regardless of our current defense systems, which was undoubtedly a result from our own advances in advancing military technology and creating weapons of mass destruction heedless of foreign agreements (
http://www.stopdubya.com/TreatyBusterDubya.htm , and such as our illegal manufacturing of anthrax which became public around the time of the anthrax scares,
http://www.nogw.com/articles/realbioterror.html ). And the corruption within the system is there but expressed more in other threads here and too involved to go into here. Still, it's there, and people are starting to realize this more and more and it isn't helping our politcal situation.
Then, of course, there's global warming and everything it stands for: climates changing, deteriorating ozone, heat waves killing thousands in Europe, unusual storms in unusual amounts doing unusual damage, parts of the ice caps breaking off and entering strange parts of the world or melting at unprecedented rates. What's interesting is that the rest of our solar system is showing unusual activity. The Sun is a good example of this. Remember all those record-breakingly massive flares? They haven't stopped coming (
http://www.spaceweather.com/ ), though the media has lost interest, and they certainly still aren't usual and don't fit any scientific observations we've ever made, especially that 'X28' that could've easily been more like X40 back in 2003 (
http://www.msnbc.com/news/984388.asp?0cl=cR&cp1=1 ). Similar oddities have started plaguing individual planets in our system, as well, in the form of Pluto warming as it moves farther into space (
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto_warming_021009.html ), Jupiter's spots weakening and climate changing (
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/04/21_jupiter.shtml ), climate change on Mars (
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48895,00.html ), etc.
I think the developlment of those things are going to be what leads us into change around 2012. The fact that the Mayans designated that as an important year may show that spiritually, this is the year of an important change as well. I think 2012 was once referred to on these boards as 'midnight' for all of these things; the precise date given for a series of events that are still unfolding and will continue to unfold after 2012 from the view that we're entering a new celestial age as we cycle further through the cosmos. I don't see how that would be much more difficult to believe than there is a such thing as Astral Projection, or God. Especially combined with current events that are definitely unique to our times, the idea that we're entering new times doesn't seem that hard to believe for me at least.
Again, this doesn't mean that all 2012 beliefs necessarily mean that on December 12th or whatever it is 2012, bad people will suddenly die and the good will be saved or whatever you're under the impression of it meaning. Just that we're entering a period of extraordinary change and unfortunately a lot of carnage may very easily come with that, and it seems likely will if these things to continue to unfold at all. Thousands and thousands have already died from that tsunami, and the war in Iraq has killed over 100,000 Iraqi civilians alone. Saying that more people will die from natural disasters and war is not saying much. Saying that the war will only get worse isn't saying much either, and science is already showing that natural disasters are on a major rise. It isn't a very big step from that to believing that these things will climax and then stabilize (certainly they won't go on forever!), one way or another, in the near future, and then putting this under a label of a new start for humanity. The Mayans already threw us a date, so, whatever works.