What did materialize: earthquakes, a tsunami and a financial meltdown much messier than any superhero can tackle.

Doomsday scenarios exist to scare us. More likely, they give form to embedded fears, thus channeling them into something harmless.

Dozens of "rumor-mongers" have been rounded up in China recently. If their crime consists of nothing more than encouraging others to buy up candles, it would be heavy-handed. If their impact was more palpably irrevocable, such as having the credulous give up their properties or jobs, they should be stopped.

Stupidity is not a sin; taking advantage of it for personal gain, on the other hand, is morally repugnant.

Almost every religion or cult has its own version of the day of reckoning.

Some tales are more flowery than others, none as visually stimulating as Hollywood renders it. The movie 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich, shows us how the cities of Las Vegas and Los Angeles go up in flames, tumbling down like dominos.

I've noticed that people wow or even applaud such spectacles as if they were ingenious firecracker shows. A real disaster would not have elicited such responses.

The best spin on such perversion is, it serves to enhance our collective optimism or at least find humor where humor has little place.

To be more frank, it's just a demonstration of the latest computer graphics technology Hollywood can buy. And Chinese audiences eat it up like gourmet fare served at an upscale restaurant, snapping up tickets even to the 3-D version.

Compared with the money lured out of moviegoers' pockets, those spent on unnecessary candles are probably peanuts. Yet people do not feel cheated because candles do not create spectacles.

What if the world does not end with a bang but with a whimper? What if 2012 turns into 1984 as described by George Orwell? That would be like Armageddon without explosions, not fit for a blockbuster.

More articles from X-Ray:

Different strokes for different folks	Muddy waters	When a star loses its luster	Blessed month for movie lovers