How Will The 20th Century Be Remembered?
Aug 15, 2022 23:10:03 GMT
stevep and Carolus Orlandus like this
Post by Zyobot on Aug 15, 2022 23:10:03 GMT
It's just 22 years behind us, and already "feels" like its own detached, entirely separate period of history.
Yet, the 20th century was a massive, hundred-year conga line of bloodshed, social change, and technological advancements that overthrew the old systems and ushered in new ones, giving rise to the 21st century we all know, love, and hate to various degrees. Two World Wars brought about carnage never before thought possible, and the subsequent Cold War—while, thankfully, having never gone hot—introduced new means of destroying ourselves that no one would've thought possible before. Europe's venerable colonial empires crumbled to communism, fascism, and the exhaustion of wartime, replaced by more modest republics that fell into the camps of their American and Soviet backers, now the new global superpowers who'd remake global politics in their own image.
Technological advances—though, perhaps, not as unequivocally destructive or disruptive to the preexisting order—were equally impressive. Mass-communication reached a new stage with telephone, radio, and motion pictures that have permeated the pop culture of subsequent generations. Airplanes and automobiles changed human travel forever, allowing common citizens to traverse miles in a matter of minutes and crisscross the globe in a matter of hours. And, towards the end, the 20th century gave rise to a set of innovations that have become fundamental to the 21st, in the form of internet and personal computers.
Clearly, lots has happened, though how much weight modern attitudes place on it remains shaped by recency bias that will fade as time makes it seem more "distant" to our descendants, as well as whatever new changes they experience that affect the world in ways that are just as profound. So, that all in mind, what will future generations make of the 20th century, as they look back with a fresh, distant, and disconnected set of eyes that has never seen their battle buddy die in the trenches of the Somme, watched the Moon landings on live television, or bought the newest in whizbang PCs from a Nineties electronics store?
Thank you in advance,
Zyobot
Yet, the 20th century was a massive, hundred-year conga line of bloodshed, social change, and technological advancements that overthrew the old systems and ushered in new ones, giving rise to the 21st century we all know, love, and hate to various degrees. Two World Wars brought about carnage never before thought possible, and the subsequent Cold War—while, thankfully, having never gone hot—introduced new means of destroying ourselves that no one would've thought possible before. Europe's venerable colonial empires crumbled to communism, fascism, and the exhaustion of wartime, replaced by more modest republics that fell into the camps of their American and Soviet backers, now the new global superpowers who'd remake global politics in their own image.
Technological advances—though, perhaps, not as unequivocally destructive or disruptive to the preexisting order—were equally impressive. Mass-communication reached a new stage with telephone, radio, and motion pictures that have permeated the pop culture of subsequent generations. Airplanes and automobiles changed human travel forever, allowing common citizens to traverse miles in a matter of minutes and crisscross the globe in a matter of hours. And, towards the end, the 20th century gave rise to a set of innovations that have become fundamental to the 21st, in the form of internet and personal computers.
Clearly, lots has happened, though how much weight modern attitudes place on it remains shaped by recency bias that will fade as time makes it seem more "distant" to our descendants, as well as whatever new changes they experience that affect the world in ways that are just as profound. So, that all in mind, what will future generations make of the 20th century, as they look back with a fresh, distant, and disconnected set of eyes that has never seen their battle buddy die in the trenches of the Somme, watched the Moon landings on live television, or bought the newest in whizbang PCs from a Nineties electronics store?
Thank you in advance,
Zyobot
