(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So this decade is almost over, at least as such things are normally reckoned. Does anyone care?
I feel profoundly indifferent about the aughts. In terms of politics, all of the same problems that we faced at the start of the decade (out of control health care spending, unsustainable entilement programs, gawd-awful schools) we still face at the end. The Obama administration seems determined to make some of these problems worse rather than better.
Some of the newer problems that arose (Islamo-fascist terrorism and government nutured housing bubble) are far from resolution as well. The only big thing I can think of to feel positive about was the continuing splintering of mass culture into subcultures. Oh, and mashups. Mashups are cool.
Best to put this decade to bed as a write-off and move on. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
There are some other cool things. How about blogs? In general, the internet has really come a long way during the last decade.
And how about food? Scientists are constantly inventing new and better flavors. (Thank you , Mr. Griswold!)
Blogs would fall under the category of the splintering of mass culture, which represents a positive phenomenon in my book.
What would be an example of a good decade?
The 90s were pretty great — end of the Soviet Union, strong growth in GDP, effective treatment for AIDS. I can’t think of anything comparable for the aughts.
I agree- the 1990s were better in terms of improving large problems. The collapse of communism was great, poverty rates dropped both globally and domestically.
Of course, you could make the case that both the Islamofascist terrorist and property bubble cans were kicked down the road into the current decade…
Not that they are a definitive source, but I recall an end of the decade MTV commercial with a tagline that went something like, “Celebrate the 90’s, a decade turning out to be almost as embarrassing as the 70’s”
If I worked at MTV, I would have been ashamed of the 90s as well.
90s music wasn’t very good. And the decade did end with Clinton using the oval office to chase interns. So it was easy for MTV to miss the bigger picture about peace, prosperity, restrained government, etc…
The 80s were also pretty great. Music was fantastic. Inflation was defeated and government limited. The seeds of beating communism were sowed.
Netflix is great too. And I really like how TV is streaming online. I can watch most any show at any time. The internet is pushing media to serve me as an individual. Unfortunately, the government is trying to pull me into a collective. This push and pull should make for an interesting teens.
As for the mashup link, copyright law still stands in the way of coolness. Here is a working link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8wup8_dj-morgoth-never-gonna-give-your-te_music
C’mon Jay, 90s music was better than 80s music overall. Grunge got old, but it was a natural reaction to the Madonna and Poison dying gasps of the 1980s. The Swing and Punk revivals were fun too.
The only good thing about the Aughts: it’s the decade when the muppets FINALLY covered a Queen song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY&feature=player_embedded. Other than that it generally sucked rocks.