New millenium
New milleniumThe millennium will not usher in an entirely new world overnight. Just as Europe remained mired in the Dark Ages for centuries after the first millennium came and went, so will our society require many years to experience deep change, a change that transcends the processor speed of the box on your desk. Contrary to predictions made in the year 1900, our cars do not fly in the year 2000, world hunger persists, and disease runs rampant. Humanity changed little in the last 100 years because humanity changes slowly. As we watch Discover Card sponsor Times Square 2000 and M&M's try to profit off their fortuitous name, we see that nothing has changed at all.
More than anything, the year 2000 has been used as a scapegoat for declining morality and as a buzzword glorifying the fast pace of technology, the stress of life, and the downsizing of unskilled labor. The next millennium will be what we make of it. While I believe the world is becoming a better place, there is also much to be concerned about; neither our problems nor our cures have anything to do with changing millenniums.
It is a well-known axiom that knowledge is power. New technologies like the Internet, cell phones, and satellite TV have succeeded in making the world smaller. Everyone immediately knows events that occur anywhere on the globe. This information can make you money in the stock market, be the lifeblood of the newspaper business, or provide necessary government information. By bringing people closer together and making countries and peoples interdependent, technology may make war more costly and thus contribute to peace.
However, one must not watch the world change; one must change with it. As Bob Dylan sang: "Your old role is rapidly aging, please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand, for the times they are a changin'." Technology is not a convenience; it does not make our lives less stressful or give us more free time. Initially, we might think this, but soon the technology that was once...
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