Why 2020 is just the beginning of the 21st century
For those of you who did not like History in school or simply erased it from their memory once they grew up (I get you), you might read this title and think …
“Who’s that fool? The 21st century started January, 1st 2001.”
This date is the calendar date, for sure, I wouldn’t debate with you on that. But, it’s only the numerical number defining the beginning of an arbitrary century.
In History, a century has a different meaning.
Bear with me, the recap is going to be short, I promise.
What’s a historical century?
If you talk to someone who has taken History in college, they might tell you that a century surely doesn’t start and end with arbitrary dates. It is defined by its most memorable events, general dynamic, and respective movements.
For instance, historians such as Eric Hobsbawm or Jürgen Osterhammel have claimed the XIXth century to start in 1789 with the French Revolution and to stop in 1914 with World War I. Why these boundaries you might ask? Because 1789, the French Revolution, is the perfect cutting element between centuries of monarchies to centuries of republics (or revolutions at least). Therefore, both the French and American revolutions happening in the late XVIIIth century are the step-stones to a new Historic era.
1914 is also the perfect cutting element between the next century. World War I brings a completely new way of waging war. It included the entire world (more or less) and the entire society. It created new means of fighting (tranches) and new weapons of massive destruction. It was the beginning of a new era of wars like never seen before.
When searching for the cut between two centuries, you’re trying to look for a memorable event, something new and revolutionary, that did not happen before and changed the course of history.
So, when does the XXth century end then?
Eric Hobsbawm claims that the XXth century ends in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. If the XIXth was a century of revolutions, the XXth is a century of destruction with ongoing wars; World War I, World War II, Wars for the decolonization, the Cold War …; economic collapses; the Great Depression and the OPEC Oil Price Shock of 1973; massive system failures; end of imperialism with the decolonization, failure of communism. Therefore, the fall of the Soviet Union, symbolically the fall of communism, looks to him like the end of a Historic destructive era.
But why end it only in 1991?
It is because of the characteristics of this destructive and extreme XXth century that I believe it only ended in 2020.
Let me explain.
Reasons why I believe 1991 is NOT the end of the XXth century
When looking at some of the memorable events happening after 1991 some still fit in the characteristics of destruction and collapses.
Terrorism, new cycles of destruction
First of all, we experienced terrorism on a large scale with 9/11, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and more. But, terrorism is just another word for warfare and destruction as we’ve seen with all the attacks worldwide and several fights that occurred in Irak, Afghanistan, and Syria since 1991.
The continuity of economic collapses
Moreover, we did experience another economic crisis in 2008 and it fits well with all mankind related crises that happened in 1929 and the 70s. Just one more in the economic mess of the XXth century.
Nonetheless, one of the main arguments against my theory is that the 90s are also the birth of the Internet and social media. I agree, the internet is brand new after 1991, but there are two reasons why I don’t think it’s THE remarkable event that cuts our two centuries.
The birth of the Internet but not the digital revolution awaited
First of all, if you look at it differently, the internet might just be the continuity of all the telecommunication and other technological improvements of the XXth century. We went from newspapers to radios, to the huge TV revolution of the 60s. So, the birth of the internet fits well in these advancements happening in the XXth century.
Second of all, I do not believe we ever used the Internet’s full potential until today. Before 2020, the Internet was mainly used as entertainment or as a means of communication, but not as a workplace. We have seen the rise of Internet jobs such as the famous “influencer” in the past years, but this is just a minority of people. Looking at it retrospectively and with a critical mind, we never took the internet seriously and used its full potential until we were forced to, thanks to a pandemic.
Reasons why I believe 2020 IS the true beginning of the 21st century
A complete reconstruction of our societies
This pandemic has forced us to completely rethink our way of living, to respect the health measures to it slow down. For convenient reasons, we directed ourselves towards the internet and social media as they were the best tools we knew to allow us to communicate while being protected. But, it’s the first time we managed to create a functioning workplace online.
For instance, if online courses and MOOCs were developed before 2020, they were not taken seriously enough and the organization was not nearly as close to what schools managed to pull out this last semester. Covid-19 forced us to digitalize schools like never before. Some studies have even shown that “blended learning”, meaning a combination of in-person and online classes, might become the new norm in the future.
And it is not only about school, we digitalized companies and realized it was not necessary anymore to physically go to work.
Before 2020, the internet was never used professionally to this scale. This year might be the profound internet revolution we were waiting for.
Voluntarily stopping the economy and controlling an economic crisis
Now, economically speaking, some might say,
“Look, we have another economic crisis in 2020, like all the ones that happened before, nothing’s changed”
I do not agree with that, something has changed. Unlike all the previous ones, which were caused by human error, this economic crisis was forced upon us. We voluntarily decided to slow down the economy and we controlled it. It was not a mistake, it was a choice.
This pandemic fundamentally changed our entire systems, the entire way our society works. From school to work, studies have shown some consequences of quarantine are massive. For instance, in the aftermath of quarantine, European countries have observed growth in bike sales and a decline in bus or car usage leading to a complete rearrangement of roads and cities. These are some of the unexpected consequences of social distancing.
We’ll wake up from this pandemic and go to school, work, move, travel, or simply live differently.
We might have had other pandemics before, but this one surely has deeply affected our entire society, and that’s the main reason why I believe 2020 IS the true beginning of the 21st century.
So, what’s to come?
What will the 21st century look like?
In 2 words; a lot.
What we are experiencing these days with the Black Lives Matter movement, the climate strikes, and the awakening of Gen Z is just the beginning of a new era.
I predict the 21st century to be the century of profound transformations.
On the positive side, I believe we are progressively walking into a more equal and accepting society. The recognition of women’s sexual harassment with the #Metoo Movement, the recognition of enduring racism with the BLM movement, the worldwide fight to allow same-sex marriage, all of these major events that have happened in the 2010s have paved the way to world-wide equality in the next century.
On the negative side, I think the pandemic was just the first taste of all the technical and medical difficulties we’ll have to deal with in the future years. With global warming, more and more diseases will appear, and many more issues will harm our safety. Nevertheless, I believe …
The coronavirus pandemic has given us the chance to rethink our societies NOW.
We should take advantage of the need to rebuild our economies and our societies by investing in the environment as of now. Every decision we’ll take in the next few years will probably be decisive to how difficult our century will be.
In a nutshell
What we are living today might be exhausting and stressing, some of us are worried we’ll never look past it, but on the bright side, we are living a historic moment, one that we’ll find in history books to be the beginning of a new era.
Besides the pandemic, 2020 is also the year were we said stop to police violence and systemic racism, it’s the year where the first Space X flight succeeded, promising a new future for space exploration and space colonization, it’s also the year where many young people found their voice and realized the power they have in our societies.
Today might be hard, but one thing is certain, the future looks promising and we should focus on that.
