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While I’ve been trying to figure out what to call the past ten years – the aughts? the zeroes? the oh’s? – Time Magazine has decided to go with "The Decade From Hell." Their reasoning:
Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post-World War II era. Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.
Personally, I think there’s a lot to celebrate, too. The decade saw the defeat of the neo-cons, the rise of Web 2.0, and the revolutionary development of the boneless chicken wing. So chin up, 2000′s! We’ll call it a push.
What’s on your mind tonight?
6 Comments
Morning, Jim, love the topic.
Can’t they just stop obfuscating and call it the decade of debunking winger ideology?
And wings are not to be celebrated, imho, in any form. Please pass the fish tacos, thanks.
Backin the 40′s or 50′s author Robert Heinlein put together a future calander in which he called this decade the crazy years…how insightful of him!
You know, I find myself sometimes thinking about Heinlein’s Future History series. Of course I read it when I was 14 (the Golden Age of Science Fiction), and it didn’t really seem plausible to me. Now that I’m over 70 the idea of a wave of mass religious hysteria bringing a fanatical fundamentalist dictator into power while the people of the U.S. sink into ignorance comparable to the Dark Ages doesn’t seem nearly so implausible. Or improbable.
I’ve got a strong suspicion that this decade will come to be known as the good old days by the time we’re halfway through the next decade. The past couple of years in particular are prelude as climate change, environmental destruction and resource depletion all take hold.
The decade also saw the *rise* of the neocons to power, so I think their ultimate defeat is sort of a wash at best (if you ignore all the damage they’ve done).
Since we’re still sorting out the phenomenal mess he left, in all aspects of life on planet earth, can we call this decade the Double-Yous?