Time Magazine calls it “the decade from hell.” The Washington Post calls it “the decade we didn't see coming.” How would you characterize the first decade of the 21st century that is now passing into history? (Note: I know that 2010 completes the first decade, but let’s just talk about the years with a zero in the last two digits.)
It seems to me that the defining event of the decade happened on September 11, 2001. Those monstrous acts of terrorism led to a decade-long war, with more than one front, which still continues. And now, in a supreme irony, at the very end of that decade, another attempt at terrorism reminds us that we are still vulnerable to Islamic terrorism despite the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the Department of Homeland Security, taking our shoes off at the airport, etc., etc.
Another defining event would be the economic meltdown and the consequent bailout. Couple this with the looming health care reform bill, and it appears that Americans and their government may have given up on free market capitalism and are going to adopt instead a European-style social democracy. For better or worse, that would be historic.
What other events and developments of the last decade do you think were especially significant and will be featured in the history books of the future?
(Tomorrow, on New Year’s Day: Predictions for the future.)
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I see it as a the decade the reversed all the good trends of the 90s. Namely, deficit reduction and minimalizing our involvement in messy foreign conflicts. Not only did we go hog wild with spending, but we got ourselves in involved in multiple and largely unnecessary foreign conflicts. The irony of the Obama era is that the current president ran on the pledge essentially not to be Bush, but then proceeded to intensify his worst policies and reverse his best.
Decades are probably best delineated by the events that define them. 9-11 was the end of the ’90s, and the 20-noughts by the fall 2008 financial meltdown. The 20-noughts may also be seen as the last decade of the Republican Party as it goes it way (much as the 19th century Whigs disappeared) to be replaced by one that is willing to confront the excesses of the current party in power. We pray that the new decade will be characterized by the return of full appreciation for our US constitutional form of government and the benefits we’ve gained from it for over 200 years.
‘The decade from hell’ What a silly pompous title from Time. There are many other decades in US and World history that were easily worse – whether it was the 1860s, 1920s or on the European scale the early 1600s (Thirty Years’ War Era).
I know this is not related to this post. I just wanted to thank you for writing your book on the spirituality of the cross. I mentioned how helpful it has been to me on Twitter and Charlie Lehmann mentioned he was hanging out with you the other day. I told him to thank you for your book and he told me to do so myself, sending me a link to your blog. So here it is: thanks. I am a Concordia dropout (as well as a dropout from the faith altogether) who has been on quite a journey, and your book has helped me sort through a lot of things that have been troubling me about Lutheranism and Christianity in general.
Hurricane Katrina was certainly significant for us Americans. But there was the 2004 tsunami in South East Asia, too. It killed over 230,000 people.
Wow, Dan, thanks for this.
I bet history books will find the election of the first African-descended President to be significant.
I don’t see it as noteworthy but I suspect we’ll still be doing the ‘Diversity’ happy dance in the future.
The first decade of the 21st century will be remembered as the time when the Baby Boomers finally got the control had wanted for the four previous decades and liberals and conservatives alike nearly wrecked everything that they had proclaimed 40 years earlier that they could do better. The next two decades will be remembered, I predict, as a time of reconstruction. Think about the era of America’s rise to world prominence (some would say ‘dominance’, I know) followed by an era of decadence culminating in the last and present administrations alike, to be followed by an effort to return to life’s often difficult though necessary dichotomies: church/state, community/family, private/public, authority/humility, etc. We are coming to the close of America’s second adolescence; to be followed, hopefully, by a more mature (i.e., balanced, responsible, reasonable) society. Sadly, the remnants of the Cultural Revolution will remain leaving a more easily fractured society the next time around.
By the way, I’m not only talking about government, but in every area of society: education, religious denominations, science, finance, business, and so on. If “modern” meant “new and improved” and Post-Modern meant totally redesigned, then the next era will be “Back to Fundamentals” with an emphasis on what we can all agree upon and what needs to be refined or updated without changing the fundamentals. At least that’s how I hope it will go. Yes, I’m a Baby Buster.
The defining event of the decade was the establishment of Islam as an official religion of the United States of America by Congress and President Bush following 9-11. When President Bush, under the authority of the National Day of Prayer Act, urged Americans to pray to Allah, America became an idolatrous nation.
In the years following the establishment of Islam, America has been cursed by an unjust war in Iraq, the unprecedented natural disaster of Katrina, the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, and an endless war in Afghanistan. American can have no expectation of temporal blessing until the nation returns to the non-establishment of religion clause of the U.S. Constitution.