There is an absolute consensus. This is an issue with a right and a wrong. It’s like round Earth vs. flat Earth. Sure you can find flat Earthers, but you don’t treat anyone so absolutely wrong as merely another viewpoint. When someone posts something claiming a flat Earth, they will get shouted down as wrong. Ditto anyone who thinks enumerated centuries start on the 100s. The latter error is even worse in way: it only requires a tiny bit of a Math to understand. No measurements or anything.
One problem with the US media in recent years is the cultivating of the notion that both sides of an issue are “equal”. Nope. Sometimes there’s a right and a wrong.
So that would be most of the planet getting shouted down as wrong for celebrating the start of the 21st century on January 1, 2000? Didn’t think so. There were epic parties all over the world at the time and the people saying “Well, Actually…” were in the minority.
There weren’t epic parties (at least on the same scale) on January 1, 2001. Which tells us that the majority of people - including me - think centuries start on the 00 year.
This is a totally different kettle of fish to whether or not the Earth is flat, because there’s no disagreement on what “flat” is or what “curved” is - and it’s easy to see that the Earth is round because the horizon exists.
That observation is true, but this isn’t one of those times.
From my perspective, it’s Martini Enfield Sharing Planet With People Who Are Wrong About Things.
I think this “The century starts on xx01 year” stuff is one of those “Almost only on the SDMB”-type things, like weirdoes insisting Sunday is the first day of the week and not Monday.
In the US. IIRC calendars in other countries have a tendency to start on Monday, and I have calendar software that allows me to customize my week view to start on any day that suits my needs. While in school and working retail, I used Saturday as my start day, since that lined up with the schedule issued by my workplace.
So much of this debate is “my arbitrary definition of this label is right, yours is wrong”, on something that just isn’t that absolute. Face it, the definition of when a week or century starts isn’t exactly mathematical or physical law.
It’s not “arguing on behalf of ignorance”, Colibri. Having a reasonable view which differs from yours doesn’t make one “ignorant”. We’re not talking about patent nonsense like “vaccines cause autism” or “Lizard People control the world”, but around arbitrary things like “the starting point for calendars”.
And one of the reasons I’m here is I don’t get to hear a lot of alternative viewpoints from sensible people in my everyday life. It’s interesting to hear what other people think and why they think that, even if I disagree with them.
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ella Fitzgerald. So that’s a century right there.
So centuries, millenia, etc. start/end all over the place.
Unless you have a particular designation or you get the length of the period wrong. E.g., if you state that the first century after the Birth of Ella ran from April 25, 1917 to October 31, 2130 you are doubly wrong.
19th century is such a particular designation. So it has one meaning and one meaning alone. Arguing for ambiguity seems quite odd.
Read Frindle by Andrew Clements. It might be a kids’ book, but it is a really entertaining look at how words are made.
I read it every year to my classes.
After reading this thread, which I missed the first time around, I agree with Greg Charles. I’ve always known the fact that the century ends with the “00” year. My grandfather was born, just barely, in the 19th century, in October of 1900.
The passage of time really is one of the most frightening things when you think about it. The last person alive during the 1800’s is gone this year. Meanwhile, there is a whole generation of people graduating high school this year who have never known the 1900’s. :eek:
It’s funny how stubborn people are over the year the century starts and ends. 1900 is what the century was named after.
Anyway, a few people have mentioned having grandparents who were born in the 19th Century. I was going to add the story of President John Tyler, born in 1790 and took office in 1841, after William Henry Harrison died. He has two living grandchildren. Not great-great-great-grandchildren. Their dad was Tyler’s son. Plus, Tyler died when he was 71! Tyler was 63 when his second wife had a child and that son was 71 and then 75 when his second wife had two children. Both are still alive today.
My maternal grandfather was born in 1882, and yes he was my grandfather, NOT great grandfather. And dig this, I’m only 31. He had my mom when he was in his 60s. I never met him as he died in 1962.
