The decade is now half over....

by Leolaia 18 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Duncan

  Interesting. What will we call this decade we're now half way through?

  Leolaia said:

  Incidentally, it is interesting that so far we don't say twenty-oh-five so much in English (as in nineteen-oh-five) but two thousand and five. We like saying "thousand," as in "Two thousand and one: A Space Odyssey". Maybe when we get into the next decade we still start saying "twenty-oh-fourteen" and so forth. It's weird that we use two different systems to refer to dates before and after 2000; we don't say "one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine" to refer to "1999".

  I remember, at the turn of the century, there were a number of newspaper articles and TV spots that dealt with this, and which canvassed viewers opinions. A popular suggestion was that, after the "eighties" and "nineties" this decade should be called the "noughties". Cute, but it never caught on.

  Pretty much everyone I know refers to it as the "two-thousands".

  I would guess that at the turn of the next decade, people will start talking about "twenty-ten" and "twenty-eleven".

  Already, on BBC radio, which prides itself on its use of English, whenever they mention a year such as that - for example in all the reporting about the bidding for the 2012 Olympics - they use exclusively the "twenty-twelve" formula, never anything else.

  Duncan.
• 

  SixofNine

  I think we should combine the "noughties" idea, and the rather linguistically clunky "two-thousands", and call this decade the "twoughties". Has a nice ring to it, imo ;-)
• 

  hemp lover

  Czar said: "I think that people will look back only remember the date of 9/11 - and that we went to war afterwards and won, like the Spanish American War with the Maine and invading Cuba. They won't even remember Iraq as being anything other than an interlude."
  
  
  Oh, I think people will remember Iraq, especially the ones coming home blind and/or missing a limb in addition to the friends and families of those not coming home at all.
  
  
  Interesting that you compared this to the Spanish-American war, since America was mired in a guerrilla war in the Philippines for about a decade afterward, due to their belief that the Filipino peoples would welcome them as occupiers. Sound familiar?
  
  
  Here's to the "twoughties".
• 

  Preston

  For me the 00's so far have been pretty mixed. Sometimes I think this is the best and worst time of my life. I got married, just got out of leaving an inhumane religion, and graduated from my university... the things that make me ambivalent tend to be things on the world scene, political issues, what's going on in Latin America, Russia, Asia. I hope our country fares well the next couple of years and that our president makes some wise choices (even though I did not vote for him). They say that a president's second term tends to be less impressive than the first but I have high hopes... I believe as of today (January 5, 2004) gay rights is pretty much dead. In Arizona voters will be voting on banning gay marriage and civil unions in 2 years and I'll be ready. I still believe I have more freedoms in this country and greater opportunities to better myself than any other place in the world. as for music and movies, there is a lot of great current music out there, as for TV shows I think network television is done. For your enjoyment these are the top 10 movies I have seen over the past 5 years..

  1.) Quills (2000 - dir. - Philip Kaufman) 2.) In the Mood for Love (2000 - dir. - Wong Kar Wai) 3.) A Day in the Life of Ivan Arsenevitch (2000 - dir. - Chris Marker) 4.) Chuck & Buck (2000 - dir. - Miguel Arteta) 5.) Storytelling (2000 - dir. - Todd Solondz) 6.) Mulholland Dr (2001 - dir. - David Lynch) 7.) Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001 - dir. - John Cameron Mitchell) 8.) The Fast Runner (2001 - dir. - Zacharias Kunuk) 9.) A.I. (2001 - dir. - St. Spielberg) 10.) The Aviator (2004 - dir. - Martin Scorsese)

  - Preston
• 

  jgnat

  I notice Americans tend to view at the last few years as bleak, dark. Perhaps that is natural for a country at war.

  Perhaps it is my natural optimism, mixed with my Canadian survivalist genes, mixed with a native contrariness to prove the JW worldview as WRONG, WRONG WRONG, but I think the world is getting better. Apartied is gone. The Berlin wall is gone. India feeds it's people, and now employs call centres to torture the rest of the world with. China is growing, Brazil is growing. We buy cars from Korea; who knew? The baby boomers may finally lose their cultural choke-hold on North America, and these new kids have a whole different set of priorities. People care about the animals and the forests and the air. Hybrid cars are in, and I predict will get very hot, or cool, or whatever this next generation decides to call the hit-of-the-moment. Have you noticed that racial and cultural lines are blurring, and inter-marrying? Or is that a uniquely Canadian thing?

  Bush's war is unpopular, because the public can't be coaxed in to war simply out of opportunism. To survive, a leader of a democratic nation now has to prove that he has the moral high ground. Think on that, a leader must at least APPEAR to be ethical. I think we are witnessing the end of the threat of global war. Quickly to be replaced by global bureacracy.

  I dub this coming decade as the plugged-in generation.
• 

  seattleniceguy

  Leolaia:

  It's weird that we use two different systems to refer to dates before and after 2000; we don't say "one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine" to refer to "1999".

  Incidentally, in Japanese, they actually do say "one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine." It was kind of nice when we rounded the corner because it requires far fewer syllables to say "two thousand" or "two thousand and one."

  SNG
• 

  Leolaia

  Good responses, everyone.

  In my own biased perspective, I personally feel that many things have gotten worse (as undoubtedly other things have gotten better), and I am most troubled by the current administration and its (imho) irresponsible actions, as well as the growing immiseration and extremism in the world (if not the US's increasing lurch to the right), but this is not fodder for the WTS unless we ignore history which is basically continuous socioeconomic conflict and war interspersed with interludes of peace and stability. Only from the very limited viewpoint of my own lifetime (with my political consciousness postdating the Vietnam War and dominated by the Pax Americana of the '90s) do things seem to be going to hell in a handbasket. The '90s seem to now glow with an nostalgic innocence they probably did not have at the time.

  Preston...I haven't seen most of those flicks, but Mulholland Drive is one of my all-time favorites. It's a great psychological story once you figure out what's going on. hemp lover....That's a very interesting point about the Philippines, one I haven't heard articulated vis-a-vis the current Iraq War. Bush does walk somewhat in McKinley's footsteps (and his precedessor Cleveland was somewhat of a Clinton figure too, in wanting to respect international law), as a warrior more of opportunity than reluctant necessity (e.g. President Wilson). Though the Patriot Act and the current zeitgeist is more similar to that of Wilson's time than any time earlier or later (imho).

  Does anyone here actually say "twenty-oh-five" than "two-thousand-and-five"? Is one way more common with British than Americans? I only hear Americans say "two-thousand-etc". Hey, just now I just heard Chris Matthews on MSNBC say "two-thousand-and-two".
• 

  IronGland

  I tend to think that by the end of G-W-Moron's present term, the US will be so fucked up that people who voted for him will vote against him

  I doubt it. I predict the 22nd amendment will bring his downfall.
• 

  garybuss

  Do you think world conditions are worse than in the '90s?

  Nope! The weather is about the same. Summers are warm and winters are still cold. Animals all seem about the same. Birds come to the feeder every day. Squirrels still like unsalted peanuts. The mountains still are pretty in spring and majestic in winter.
  
  The river near my home still looks as it did the first time I saw it in 1948. Trees all around and rapids and falls, all very pretty. The deer out back still like the apple trees and the possum still comes looking for a snack after sunset.
  
  Guess I'd say real world conditions are exactly the same as I first remember. This decade is actually very good for me personally. I have an 18 month old grandson and he likes me and he gives me open mouth sloppy kisses. In my part of the world, my world conditions are the best I have ever seen in my life.