2012: Decoding the Countercultural ApocalypseJoseph Gelfer "A breath of fresh air in the academic treatment of an incredibly significant and pervasive contemporary millennial phenomenon" - The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 'Provides a much-needed interdisciplinary analysis of a pervasive phenomenon that has received very little critical attention despite a longstanding history of academic interest in millenarian activity. ...this volume has set the bar for future work on the 2012 phenomenon. Anyone with an interest in a critical examination of the 2012 milieu (or of popular millenarian movements more generally), or in patterns of cultural appropriation (both from and by indigenous cultures) would do well to spend some time with this volume.'- Nova Religio 21 December, 2012 is believed to mark the end of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Mayan calendar. A growing number of people believe this date to mark the end of the world or, at the very least, the end of the world as we know it: a shift to a new form of global consciousness. This book brings together for the first time a range of scholarly analyses on the 2012 phenomena. Examining how much of the 2012 phenomenon is based on the historical record and how much is contemporary fiction, the book reveals the landscape of the modern apocalyptic imagination, the economics of the spiritual marketplace, the commodification of countercultural values, and the cult of celebrity. |
