2002
The World I Was Born Into
https://brubin-24187.medium.com
I was a fetus trapped in my mother's womb when 3,000 people in the United States were annihilated on September 11th, 2001, in an act of terrorism perpetrated by the highest levels of government. I would be born five months later, on Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
In the wake of 9/11 came a wave of Draconian measures designed to keep us safe from the Jihadi Boogeymen, orchestrating sophisticated plots from their caves in the Middle East. President George W. Bush, hoping to realize his father's vision of a New World Order, signed the Patriot Act in October of 2001, which granted the intelligence agencies free reign to eavesdrop on phone calls, monitor Internet browsing history, detain travelers at airports, search houses without a warrant, and see X-rays of genitalia at checkpoints. If you have a problem with any of this, then you must not be a patriot.
The specter of 9/11 loomed over the media and pop culture in the following year. The news sounded non-stop alarm bells of potential terror threats. References to the World Trade Center were edited out of movies, TV shows, and video games, and in their place came patriotic, saber-rattling propaganda.
If you weren’t scared into submission, then you could enjoy your commute to work while listening to the radio. The biggest chart-toppers that year were Lose Yourself by Eminem, Foolish by Ashanti, and Dilemma by Nelly. Rock ’N Roll still had its place on the pop charts, with Linkin Park, Coldplay, Avril Lavigne, and best of all, Nickelback, all reaching great success that year.
The European Union unveiled the Euro as the new consolidated currency for all of its subject nations. This action would instantly date Tom Green’s gag about “40 million Deutschmarks! ” in Freddy Got Fingered.
The Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl, and Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament for the second year in a row. If outdoor sports and touching grass weren't your cup of tea, you could always stay home and play Super Mario Sunshine or GTA: Vice City.
All you gamers will probably remember the debut of G4TV. I only ever watched it when they aired re-runs of that anti-Fourth Amendment propaganda program known as COPS. The channel kicked the bucket after 11 short years, but its spirit rose from the grave for a brief period in 2022 to berate its viewers for being sexist.
The Wire, The Shield, Naruto, and Top Gear debuted in 2002, along with brain rot like American Idol, The Bachelor, The Osbournes, CSI: Miami, and Dr. Phil. Joss Whedon's Firefly also debuted before being swiftly canceled after one season.
On March 24th, The Academy aired its longest awards telecast in history, clocking in at 4 hours and 23 minutes. The awards for Best Actor and Best Actress went to two Black Americans…
“Why did Halle have to let a white man pop ’er
to get ’er Oscar?
Why did Denzel have to be crooked
before he took it?” - Jadakiss
People still went to the movies, with the box office numbers up 15% over last year. It was a good year for middles, as George Lucas premiered the middle chapter of his Star Wars prequel trilogy, followed by the middle volume of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. The year saw the beginnings of the Spider-Man, Ice Age, Bourne, Resident Evil, Transporter, and Grudge franchises. Steven Spielberg made two films that year, each starring a Tom.
Paul Thomas Anderson made Punch-Drunk Love, Danny Boyle made 28 Days Later, M. Night Shyamalan made Signs, Christopher Nolan made Insomnia, Gaspar Noé made Irréversible, Spike Lee made 25th Hour, Pedro Almodóvar made Hable con ella, Aleksandr Sokurov made Russian Ark, Todd Haynes made Far from Heaven, Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund made City of God, and Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman made Adaptation.
There were also Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Rob Marshall's Best Picture-winning musical Chicago, all of which were produced by Meryl Streep's “God”, Harvey Weinstein. At the Cannes Film Festival, fugitive rapist Roman Polanski won the Palme d'Or for his Holocaust drama The Pianist, which earned him standing ovations from half of Hollywood.
“When Martin Scorsese was up to win best director for Gangs of New York, we faced Polanski and The Pianist. We were campaigning hard for Marty because he had never won best director, but when Marty lost to Roman, he turned to me and said: ‘I'm so happy right now. Of all the people in the world that I'd want to lose to, it's Roman. You have to understand that Polanski's films have influenced me as an artist all these years and his terrible political situation has been something we have all had to suffer through. We won because Roman won.’”
- Harvey Weinstein, The Independent, 2009
Donald Trump was a registered Democrat, signed a deal with NBC to air his Miss Universe pageants, and appeared in a McDonald's commercial alongside The Grimace. Meanwhile, the voters of Delaware re-elected Senator Joe Biden for his sixth term, and keep in mind, one term in the U.S. Senate lasts six years!
On October 11th, Biden was one of 77 out of 100 U.S. Senators to vote in favor of invading Iraq, in the quest to recover the mythical “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Over 100,000 civilians in the next decade would be killed in the name of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.
On October 12th, multiple bombings in Bali would claim over 200 lives. Later that month, a hostage crisis in a Moscow theater would lead to the deaths of 132 people.
In 2002, the world said farewell to Milton Berle, James Coburn, Richard Harris, Chuck Jones, Dudley Moore, Rod Steiger, and Billy Wilder. At the same time, life was granted to Jenna Ortega, Iman Vellani, Finn Wolfhard, and Maddie Zeigler. We have yet to see the full impact of the 2002 babies on the world.
Many of you reading this probably remember 2002 quite vividly, unlike myself. I was just chillin’ in my crib, without a care in the world.
Alejandro Martinez writes about film and other stuff on his mind because he has nothing better to do. He is the owner of “It’s Only A Movie” and “The Early Years” on Medium. He is working on a book on “1994 In Film”.
