When Fun and Fallacy Meet at the Poles:

At the Cinema with 2 0 1 2

For Error, to speak largely,
is a false judgment of things, or, an assent unto falsity.
— Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica

By Ron Fritze from Athens, Alabama
Posted November 19, 2009

The film 2012 appeared in theaters this past weekend. Given its pseudoscientific premise, I was anxious to see it. Much to my surprise, Twylia also expressed an interest in seeing it. So I said, let’s go. And we did.

Unfortunately, as we drove to the theater, she also expressed a desire to see the new Michael Jackson movie! This is one of those moments of truth in a man’s life. Do I step up and go to that movie with Twylia or do I find a less painful alternative like sticking hot pins in my eyes? More on that situation at a later date. It is time to talk about a different apocalypse.

2012 is another film directed by Roland Emmerich. He is also the director of Stargate and 10,000 B.C., both movies based respectively on the pseudohistorical premises of ancient alien visitations to the earth and the existence of advanced civilizations in the Ice Age. With 2012 the director continues down the same path.

Quakes, Eruptions, Tsunamis

Catastrophe-Apocalypse films are a popular genre and 2012 is pretty standard fare. Some dedicated scientists discover that the earth’s core is heating up due to an increase of solar flares. As the core heats up, it loosens the outer crust of the earth from the magma. That loosening of the crust will eventually cause it to shift around, triggering earth quakes, massive volcanic activity, and gigantic tsunamis. Civilization will be destroyed.

To stave off the annihilation of humanity, various nations have to band together to create a way to save a remnant of the human species. Along the way, there are lots of great special effects depicting massive earthquakes, stupendous volcanic eruptions, and gargantuan tsunamis. There is also the story of a man (John Cusack) trying to save his estranged family from destruction. The moral there is that the family that survives an apocalypse together will become the family that stays together after the smoke clears.

The film also includes deep government secrets, rich people trying to buy their way out of jeopardy, heartless bureaucrats doing heartless bureaucratic things, people being selfish, and other people being selfless — all good escapism, unless the viewer snaps out of the silver-screen dazzle to remember that several billion people are getting wiped out in the apocalypse.

Be Afraid!  The Pole Is Shifting!

Although Emmerich titled his film 2012, it really does not dwell on the Maya prophecies associated with the year 2012. Instead, the film’s premise is based on the pole shift theory. It would have been better titled Pole Shift, but that kind of literalism would have caused box-office confusion. Most people are not familiar with the pole shift theory, so they might conclude that a film with that title is about Polish people moving around or shift work among pole dancers at a strip club. Not good for ticket sales. Besides, the redoubtable Clive Cussler already used that title, or a variant of it, in his 2005 adventure tale Polar Shift.

The pole shift theory is based on the idea that the earth’s crust is similar to the skin of an orange. Sorta. OK, I admit, it’s not the best of metaphors, but then it’s not the best of theories, either. Unlike the skin of an orange, which seems to be fairly tightly bound to the pulp inside, the earth’s crust can come loose from the magma and shift around. Dramatic relocations of the poles can occur, with resulting changes of climate for the earth’s geographical regions, particularly those areas situated under one of the poles. These shifts occur periodically and cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tidal waves.

The man who popularized the pole shift theory was a college professor named Charles Hapgood (1904-1982). Hapgood studied history at Harvard, where he earned a B.A. in 1929 and an M.A. in 1931. He started a Ph.D. specializing in the history of the French Revolution in 1931, but the Great Depression appears to have intervened. He never finished his dissertation. After serving in New Deal programs and World War II, Hapgood taught at a series of colleges in New England. By most accounts he was an interesting and creative teacher who liked to involve his students in research into planetary problems and historical mysteries such as the existence of Atlantis.

In 1949 some of his students alerted Hapgood to Hugh Auchincloss Brown’s ideas about pole shifts. Hapgood was intrigued, and together they started to research the theory. Eventually Hapgood developed his own version of the pole shift theory, which appeared in 1958 as the book Earth’s Shifting Crust. Along the way, Hapgood corresponded with Albert Einstein about his ideas. The great physicist even wrote a sympathetic foreward for Earth’s Shifting Crust, even though he was not convinced by Hapgood’s evidence. Einstein’s foreward appeared posthumously.

Away from the Pole and toward the Plate

It is important to keep in mind that during the 1950s, the currently dominant theory of plate tectonics was not yet fully accepted by geologists. Although by this time the evidence supporting plate tectonics was starting to accumulate in an indisputable manner, other theories were still in play, and the pole shift theory was one of them, albeit a theory at the edge of mainstream scientific discourse. Within a few years, sufficient evidence had been gathered by scientists to render the pole shift theory untenable and to bring about the triumph of plate tectonics.

[ NOTE: The theory of plate tectonics asserts that the crust of the earth is divided into eight pieces or plates. These float on top of an asthenosphere of hot and fluid material. The plates move or drift because of the flow of heat in the asthenosphere. This slow movement reconfigures the continents, creates mountain ranges, and causes earthquakes and the formation of volcanoes. ]

Hapgood did not let contrary evidence get in the way of his continued advocacy of the pole shift. His better known book, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age (1966), was predicated on the occurrence of pole shifts. In 1970 Hapgood brought out a second edition of Earth’s Shifting Crust under the new title, The Path of the Pole. When he was killed by a car striking him while crossing the street in 1982, Hapgood was planning a third edition.

During his lifetime and even since, geologists, historians, and geographers rejected Hapgood’s theories. Despite the evidence, several pseudohistorians and opportunists have been and remain eager to embrace them. Hapgood’s career exemplifies the perils of an academic attempting to become an authority in a subject radically different from his formal training.

2012 incorporates Charles Hapgood’s ideas into its plot, lending Hapgood the distinction of being possibly the only history professor mentioned in a big budget science fiction movie. One of the characters in the film is Charlie Frost, played by Woody Harrelson. Frost, a somewhat deranged believer in the pole shift theory, shows his website on the impending pole shift to John Cusack’s character, Jackson Curtis. Frost credits Hapgood for his unorthodox ideas.

Yes, the movie portrays Frost as a first-class nut job, but as Curtis Jackson points out to his companions, all of Frost’s predictions are coming true. So Frost’s ideas are right and by implication, Hapgood’s theory is also correct — and good science to boot. The film also has Frost assert on his website that Albert Einstein accepted Hapgood’s theory, which is not true. Still, 2012 is a pretty good story, even if it is based on pseudoscience.

It's Only a Movie . . . .

If you decide to go see it, just keep telling yourself, it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie. But then, I very much doubt that you needed to be told so here on Planet Clio. Let me know what you think about the movie. I’m only an e-mail away. And, if you can, keep the skepticism alarm on full alert without impinging on the cinematic fun of another pseudohistorical blockbuster from the indomitable imagination of Roland Emmerich.

Click on the black panther to read about Ron Fritze's new book, Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science, and Pseudo-religions.