There is an inoordinate amount of unfortunate pessism in this thread. 2012 represents a year of amazing possibility, potential, and an evolution of the human condition, the earth consciousness, and the uniting of the natural and spiritual realms of perceptual existence. Will it happen? None of us can know that for sure, but to completely toss the possibilities away as ridiculous is an unfortunate symptom of the skeptical/rational/empirical mode of western thought. Now, this is not to say that such prophesies need be followed dogmatically - clearly, this isn’t beneficial to anyone.
However, the possibilities of massive global consciousness evolution should serve as a boon of progress and hope for everyone on this board. The Mayans, Egyptians, Chinese (in the I Ching), Christians (via the metaphor of the Rapture), Buddhists, Tibetans - all the spiritual/religious institutions of belief share their own metaphoric allegories in a call for the possibility of a vast and sweeping change to the human condition. Many of them unite around 2012 date.
While, clearly, we might not want to buy into the lessons, dogmas, and incredibility of many of our current religions - the fact that many of them unite in this idea of a transformative shift/end/renewal of the condition of humanity should serve as a call to the open-minded to work toward the preparation of such a reality.
The possibilities and potentials will not be imposed upon, but instead we must actively work together to enculture this beautiful change in humanity and global life. Peak oil, global warming, volcanic disaster, extra-planetary collisions, nuclear war, and all other host varieties of destruction are imminent without a unity of human vision in the development of a new world.
Together, humanity shapes their reality through the development and enforcement of conscious thought projected into reality by daily intention and action. 2012 might serve as a call to fulfill a prophesy seen by many of the major world religions over the course of time - those of us who lurk in the wilderness of LD4ALL should take this as our call, a beckoning, for further understanding of the possibilities of transformation.
Or, I suppose you could sink back into a cynical mindset of staticism, surrending to a hopeless inability to cause any of the of beautiful potentials to be realized.
But, I think a lot of you are a heck of a lot more optimistic than that.