AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS IS A REPOST FROM THE DESERT OF THE REAL ECONOMICS, ORIGINALLY POSTED ON DECEMBER 27, 2007.
This is the time of the year when commentators and media outlets release their obligatory “Year in Review” articles.. Let’s do a century instead.
Years, decades, centuries, are rarely coterminous with the events that mark them. The Gay 90’s didn’t begin in 1890 and end in 1900. The Roaring Twenties quit roaring before 1930 when the stock market crashed in 1929. And the 1960s? Judging by all of the retired hippies in Santa Fe and Sedona, the 1960s may not end until the last hippies ride their Harley-Davidson wheelchairs into the sunset.
Many historians say that the 19th century “ended” in 1918 when World War I concluded. This is based upon the fact that World War I was the final clash of the empires that dominated the 19th century. Two empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were destroyed. Another empire, the Russian Empire, was defeated and transformed into the Communist Soviet Union (an empire that would take center stage in the 20th century).
The British Empire was staggered and weakened. It struggled through the rest of the 20th century but would never return to the “glory” it held in the 19th century.
The United States came to prominence after World War I and emerged as the dominant economic and industrial power.
So in effect, one world order from the 19th century was replaced by another in the wake of World War I.
SO WHEN DID THE 20TH CENTURY END?
The Author believes that the 20th Century ended in 1989 with the bloodless collapse of the Soviet Union and the East-Bloc Communist states. Before World War II, American and European financial and industrial interests operated in mortal fear of communism and socialism taking root in their economies. The world-wide Depression helped the Nazis come to power in war-and-reparations ravaged Germany. American leaders feared that the economic dislocation of the Great Depression would trigger socialist uprisings. Others feared that the disruption of the Great Depression would trigger a right-wing fascist coup in the US.
WORLD WAR II RESHUFFLED THE DECK.
Only the United States and the Soviet Union were left standing after World War II. Post-war hopes for world stability were dimmed by the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe. Then came 40-some years of the “Cold War”, which turned “warm” in Korea and Vietnam, and flashed “Red” over Soviet missiles in Cuba. And looming always was the threat of thermo-nuclear annihilation.
The fall of communism, organic, nearly bloodless, was a welcome event in human history. In the end, governments that lacked popular support fell through populist actions. With a whimper, not a bang.
SO, WHAT TO MAKE OF THE NEW 21ST CENTURY?
By the Author’s reckoning, we are almost 20 years into the 21st century (1989-today). A lot has happened. A terrorist strike on the Twin Towers in New York City has unleashed an expansionist, Christianist and authoritarian regime in Washington. These fetid impulses, never far from the surface of the body politic, have finally oozed out of their secretive mire.
We can see them for what they are-- petty tyrants (as are all tyrants) with the military and police power to act on their whims, greed, ambition, paranoia and insecurities. We can hear them derided and decried from the capitals of the world as bullies and thugs. But can we stop them?
2008 UPDATE: The Nation faces an economic shock as bad as anything since the Great Depression. Tools and leadership are in place to avoid the worst of it, but, nevertheless, it is here. We will check back in a year.
The Vikings have made the playoffs and Ducati keeps winning races. But most of the Ramones are dead and my best friend lost his business. And that most apostate of prayer still blows through the howling heart of evil.
WE THINK FREE, THEREFORE WE LIVE FREE, IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL!
