Welcome to the 21st Century

 

Decades and centuries don't tend to start on time. The 1960s arguably began in late November, 1963, on the day John F. Kennedy was shot. His assassination was the first in a series of tumultuous incidents that dominated that decade socially and politically. Similarly, the 20th Century probably started with a seemingly inconsequential event, when Henry Ford launched his Model T car in 1908 giving us both the assembly line and the automobile, and changing our world forever. 

I believe that history will record that the 21st Century actually began in the autumn of 2008. Two milestones, one economic and the other political, mark its' starting point. The first was the September Wall Street collapse, the after-effects of which we are still feeling. In the days and weeks after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell an almost apocalyptic 777 points, markets the world over roiled with volatility, Iceland declared bankruptcy and governments scrambled to nationalize their banks. Experts almost instantly recognized the new nature of this challenge. Harvey Pitt, a former SEC Chairman, pointed out last month that part of the problem lay in the fact that "we've got a 21st century financial services marketplace and a 19th century regulatory model." Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, characterized the chaos as a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami". All this confirmed the unprecedented scale and global scope of the storm, but also served notice that we were at an economic inflection point.

The financial crisis in turn affected the direction of another key contest. Barack Obama's election on Tuesday - widely credited, in part, to his calm reaction to those events - put an exclamation point on the start of a new century. One need only look at the emotional response to his victory to see why: a new US president has never elicited more interest and engaged more people across America and around the world. On those merits alone, it would have to be considered consequential. However, the true seismic impact of Obama's selection can be felt even more in its symbolism.

In some ways, Obama represents an idealized but contemporary reflection of the country he will soon lead. The Obama brand values of youth and cosmopolitanism find their echo in the real world. Today's America is being driven by younger and more multi-cultured influences. The 'Greatest Generation' of World War II, and the Baby Boomers who followed them, had produced every president since Eisenhower. On Tuesday, that torch was passed to a leader of a new generation, but also to a large swath of the electorate - the so-called Millennials - who voted for the very first time.  Young people weren't the only segment instrumental in putting Obama in the Oval Office: his support among African-Americans and Hispanics played an enormous role as well. Both these groups will grow in influence in the decades to come. By 2050, census projections indicate that the US will no longer be a predominantly white country. Yesterday's generational and ethnic minorities will become the governing majorities of tomorrow, and Obama's election anticipates that reality before it has actually happened.

 

Barack Obama represents America not only as it wants to be, but as it will be. The same can be said about the rest of the world, however. The US might be the first majority white country to elect a member of a visible minority as its' leader, but it will surely not be the last. As a result of globalization and population shifts, politicians of mixed ethnic identities will certainly surge into power and prominence in the coming years.

Famed science fiction writer William Gibson once wrote that "the future is already here. It's just not widely distributed yet." With the advent of the first global financial crisis and the election of the first multicultural American president, I believe that we have glimpsed the future and are simply waiting for it to become more commonplace. In that sense, then, we truly have turned the page on one era and have started something new.

Centuries don't begin on a calendar so much as they turn on inflection points in history. We experienced two such events this fall, and they signaled economic and political changes that will reverberate for decades to come around the world. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Comments

[Martin]

Interesting read.

What are your thoughts on 9/11's impact - do you think it has been superceded as the defining moment for the 21st century or that it never really was one?

[Emin]

Nice to see you're blogging again!

[Scott]

I don't know what you're up to, but you should consider teaching. I recall that EH Carr said history was "the study of change over time" and you obviously have a good head for it. The reversed logo was a nice visual touch -- something you rarely see in blogs.

Meanwhile, I recently read Outliers and I wonder how these events will create or deny opportunities to our generation and those that follow?

[Ion]

Scott, thanks for the kind and thoughtful comments. Both of my parents were teachers (though I'm not), but I guess part of their professorial DNA leaked through nonetheless!

I polished off 'Outliers' a month ago as well and enjoyed the book. Gladwell is one of my heroes and intellectual - if not professional - role models. To try to answer your question, I think that there are still tremendous opportunities for this generation to succeed. Books like his serve to show how modest those who actually *do* succeed should be, since a lot of it is up to good fortune along the way. Still, his insights might serve to democratize access to 'force multipliers of success' that have been previously accessible only to older hockey players or the serendipitously Seattle-based Bill Gates!

[şarapmalzemeleri]

thanks..