In history, there are certain years that bear special significance. Every educated individual understands the importance of 1066, of 1776 and of 1913. And while the Mayan calendar-based eschatology has garnered an amount of media interest and Mexican tourism, there are some reasons to suspect that 2012 will be more historically momentous than the mere fact of it being a presidential election year would tend to indicate.
The reason for this is that a number of recognizable, large-scale historical patterns that have been playing out for years all appear to be coming to a head at approximately the same time. There are four of these distinct trends, which, although inextricably intertwined to some degree, can nevertheless be identified as the economic, political, geo-strategic and demographic patterns.