Or at least that is how the Mayaists I know explain it.
That's the problem with any predicted universal expiration date - the Mayans certainly weren't the first who foresaw an end. The Teutons had their Twilight of the Gods, modern evangelical Christians have been predicting the end times since the 1800s in Scotland. And it's become something of a cottage industry here in the US, I forget the exact sales figures I'd heard for the
Left Behind series but larger than anything I'd ever imagine. However, the closer those days come (and as they pass) more and more ingenuity has to be used to make the prediction fit the universe, such as 2012 = 5 an end or just a new beginning.
If you can find it, the out of print non-fiction book
The Ragged Edge of Science by sci-fi author L. Sprauge deCamp has a fantastic collection of essays, including "
So You Want to Be A Prophet..." which illustrates many of the finer points of prediction protection people use in deeper detail. I've recently loaned the book to my cousin who wants to become a professional psychic (seriously).
If there's a group saying the Maya calendars will simply "reset" that's a new one on me I haven't heard that before. But I've not read any of the modern 2012 books I've been seeing at the bookshops. I only know the older absolutist predictions taken from it. But if you think about it, the new idea is taking on the long held Discordian Interpretation of 2012 (titled after the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics) whether they intended to or not!
"Can't Lose" is absolutely right Finchy!
"Hail Eris!
Or not.
I don't care,
I got my Five."
-To be said after you reduce, add or somehow algebraically
arrive at 5. lol!