# What Will Our Decades Be Remembered For? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 16, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054 "2005-01-16T19:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/21 "2005-01-17T18:01:32Z")
> [@Bosda](#): > > The 90’s–America’s “Indian Summer”. > > One last, golden decade before the death of the American Republic, American Dream, the death of our liberties I’m afraid I have to agree with you. ☹ > [@Gibbon](#): > > _“The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident and removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/22 "2005-01-17T21:44:40Z")
> [@Unintentionally Blank](#): > > While this thread is just ASKING to be one big dose of pessimism, how can you honestly say that after all the money raised for tsunami relief? A golden moment. Let’s check back in a year. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/23 "2005-01-17T21:53:36Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > 'cause the world, she sucks, man. And people, they just don’t care anymore! Doom and gloom! Death and despair! > > Grah. I hate the whole “the world was so much better in my day/decades past” crap Grah. I hate misrepresentation layered with a 23-year-old’s smugness, but that’s me. 😉 Never before have so many been so informed about so much–and had the ability to have some impact, if only at the margins–yet remained cocooned in their own worlds. In this case, I mean the latest and greatest video games, tech gadgets, and football on the five-foot family Jumbotron. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/24 "2005-01-18T02:00:01Z")
I was born in 1985, so it’s a bit early for me to be looking back at anything, I think. Maybe my grandchildren will hear stories about what the 1990s were like. For me, the '90s was the decade of grunge music, garage bands, baggy pants, flannel shirts…it seems to me like people got fed up with the bright, colorful, artificial style of the music and media in the '80s where everything was digitized and plastic, and deliberately went back to a more basic form of media, where the most popular musicians were those who got their start playing acoustic guitar in the garage, and never deviated from that original style. I can’t say anything really about the politics of the 1990s, since I was pretty young; for me, that decade will always be the decade of Sonic the Hedgehog, Lara Croft, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe I’m just cynical, but it seems to me like this decade has been nothing but the Decade That Jumped The Shark. Everything you see on TV is a copy of a copy of a remake of something that was originally interesting. Movies are nothing but one-dimensional characters and crappy CGI. Music has been hijacked by MTV and turned into nothing but Stupid Spoiled Whores™ lip-syncing to crappy songs that were written for the sole purpose of tying in to the aforementioned crappy movie with bad computer graphics and determined to get played on the air by focus groups and committees rather than artistic merit. This is the decade that canceled _Futurama_ in favor of _The Swan_. And you won’t have to wait 30 years for people to be comparing the War on Terror with the War on Commies. I think the defining moment for me was when I saw a news poll on TV during the election asking, “Which of these people running for Washington state governor do you think would be best to handle terrorism?” (Because as you know, their job is first and foremost to infiltrate the headquarters of al qaida.) At the time, my only thought was “Why not just ask which one is better equipped to fight communism?” :rolleyes: Yes, I’d definitely say that sometimes I’m bitter about this whole decade, and things were better when I was a young’un. Oh well. At least we still have Half Life 2 (which I sometimes refer to as “my generation’s _Stairway to Heaven_.” 😉 But maybe that’s just for video game geeks like myself.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/25 "2005-01-18T02:29:57Z")
> [@LucyInDisguise](#): > > The total and absolute abandonment of personal responsibility for ones mistakes, decisions, words, or deeds. > > Perhaps we should call these “_The decades that somebody else screwed-up_” :eek: _sigh_ **Lucy** , If I didn’t already have a wife I’d ask you yo marry me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/26 "2005-01-18T03:30:17Z")
I think the 90s will be remembered for the internet and 5 dollar coffees, Friends and grunge. I think the 2000s will be remembered for porn becoming just another category of mainstream entertainment and having a huge influence on girls and their fashions. I think in 20 or 30 years people will really look back and say WTF over it. I agree that the past is a miserable shithole of pain and suffering and I can’t believe people would get nostalgic for it. There is a lot wrong with the world but things are always getting better. When I think about things like women’s rights, race relations, diseases we no longer get. No question I am glad for my times. ---
**Author:** ![LucyInDisguise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucyindisguise/32/18064_2.png) [@LucyInDisguise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LucyInDisguise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/27 "2005-01-19T00:03:24Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > _sigh_ **Lucy** , If I didn’t already have a wife I’d ask you yo marry me. 🙂 Hmmm … Color me flattered … :o However, even if you were single I think the offer might be seriously flawed (or at least _very_ [impractical](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5725208&postcount=13) – I think Mrs. Disguise might object …) :eek: Sorry if the handle mislead you … but, if you read it _carefully_ I think you’ll see where you went wrong 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Delly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Delly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delly)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/28 "2005-01-19T01:39:12Z")
The 2000’s could be seen as the time when if you dared to like something thats popular then you had sh\*t taste. By popular I mean singers like Spears, Simpson(s), Duff etc. Reality TV, certain musicals, or a certain composer. Books like the Da Vinci Code etc. (Sure you may think they have really bad taste, but people are different, just let them like what they want to like!) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/29 "2005-01-19T02:23:20Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > Grah. I hate misrepresentation layered with a 23-year-old’s smugness, but that’s me. 😉 But that’s what we _do_. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/30 "2005-01-19T02:57:50Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > But that’s what we _do_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/31 "2005-01-20T23:22:21Z")
Hey, wait just a minute there! What about the '40s? The decade I was born in was a time of great national danger and great national hope due to WWII. We had a real sense of community, community service, “decency” and purpose…even if we didn’t always fulfill that sense. (OK, gramps crawls down off of his high horse, stepping with arthritic pain on a soapbox before getting down to earth) But I see this decade as self indulgent, both as individuals and as a nation. Perhaps this is the decade of hubris and narcissism. And it is the most dangerous decade since the early '40s. ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054/32 "2005-01-24T17:08:27Z")
Interesting discussion. I was about to post the very same question as the OP- glad I searched now. I think the 90s and 00s will not be so clearly defineable as were the previous decades, for the following reasons: - The time taken for pop cultures and styles to rise, fall, be ridiculed, and then re-emerge as ‘retro’ has shortened. I remember in the UK in around 1987 there was a revival of 50s style- I’m thinking of the Levis 501 ads of the time, a few reissues of 50s pop songs in the charts, and so on. It had taken 30 years for this style to be processed through the pop culture digestive system. Nowadays, even the fashion of only 10-15 years ago can be considered retro- for example, there are some compilation CDs in the UK market which are nostalgic compilations of ‘old school’ house and dance music- ‘old school’ being early 90s in this case. - The internet, and the increasing number of cable/ satellite TV stations, mean that people are not all watching the same shows and listening to the same music- not at least to the extent that they were in the 70s, when there were (in the UK) only 3 TV stations to choose from. - Increased amount of advertising across all media- memes propagate faster, no trend dominates. The above said, I think the best characterisation of the 90s so far has been **KJ’s**. There’s no substitute for actually being young during the decade in question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-our-decades-be-remembered-for/285054.md?page=1)