Millennial Madness Unmasked

Almost 100 years ago, on January 8, 1900, The Crimson published a front page story titled "A Brief Summary of Growth and Changes of the Century." The one-column article stated that "the beginning of the year 1900 has suggested a comparison of the present Harvard with the Harvard of one hundred years ago."

It went on to detail the increased number of professors, new buildings and funds accumulated by the University over the previous century in a laundry-list style.

But beyond the statistical discussion, little was said about the significance of the new century. No hype, no predictions, no buzz. Life moved on as usual once the accounting had been done. The upcoming millennium promises to be a different story.

Whether you're scared of the Y2K bug, psyched for a new beginning in a world where time starts at zero or afraid that the universe will end when the clock strikes midnight, next New Year's Eve is shaping up to be the Main Event. (A note to all you mathematicians--yes, the new millennium does technically begin in 2001, but the apocalyptic nature of all those zeroes has us focusing on 2000 as the de facto turning point).

There's little doubt that the Main Event has grabbed our collective attention--guides on how to save yourself from Y2K line the shelves of book-stores, Web sites analyze various predictions about the future of the world and those little millennium countdown clocks are ubiquitous. (And, need I remind you, this newspaper has chosen to devote an entire section to the topic).

Like the hype swirling around the opening of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," we've been hearing about the approaching millennium for years. As a society, we've created the ultimate movie opening for a chronological turning point, complete with the merchandise--a consumer event for a consumer society.

You can now wear your "Excuse me, I'm having one of those millenniums" T-shirt, sweatshirt and cap (the whole ensemble can be yours for only $53.85 on www.year2000products.com) while playing a special edition of Millennium Monopoly and drinking out of a millennium champagne flute ($24.95 each, but only $14.50 each if you buy in bulk).

You can even illuminate your New Year's Eve party with a "Year 2000" neon sign for only $169.50 (order early to avoid the rush).

But what's the point, exactly? Laying aside the possible technological implications of Y2K, what is so important about a new year, a new century, a new millennium? Our world is one constantly taking stock, measuring itself against arbitrary (and self-imposed) standards of achievement and progress, and time is an easy standard by which to measure.

As we get closer to 2000, the stock-taking increases. As mille.org, a millennial watch Web site, points out: "Millennialism operates...like a Doppler effect: at the approach of a given date or time: it crescendos with accelerating intensity, and, the moment passed, fades rapidly."

The late-'90s rock musical Rent, with its theme of pre-millennial angst, was written in that crescendo of intensity. It asks in its most famous refrain how best to measure time--"in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee?" Later in the musical, the reason for measuring is articulated: "You're living in America at the end of the millennium...where it's like the Twilight Zone."

Twilight Zone indeed. The focus on the end of an era and the beginning of a new one consumes our imaginations. It seems reasonable to believe that after such a long period as a 1,000 years (three zeroes' worth of time in our base-10 system), something must be about to happen. The only question is, what? When the clock strikes and the ball drops, will everything explode in a sequel to the Big Bang? Probably not. Will the world start afresh, free of war and strife and instead filled with peace and tranquility? It sure would be nice, but I doubt it.

No, the answer is that probably nothing will happen. Computer difficulties aside, New Year's Eve 2000 will be just another day. As Professor of Astronomy Robert P. Kirshner points out, "If the universe is 15 billion years old, that's a million millennia. What's the big deal?" The danger in our societal emphasis on the coming millennium is that as we spend so much time measuring and acknowledging the passage of time, we begin to ignore what it is we're doing in that time.

We lose the context and the reason for our actions when we're constantly looking to evaluate the outcome and, by extension, we lose our appreciation for the actions of others. "Emphasis on something like the millennium deflects attention from the genuinely important matters that work themselves out over decades. An educated man or woman should forget the date and look on either side of it," says Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape Development John R. Stilgoe.

Many of the media's millennial specials that do look on either side of the Main Event are useful; the New York Times Magazine's six special issues on the last 1,000 years, and "Millennium," a British television production, take advantage of the historical moment to examine broad trends facing society. On the other hand, London's Millennium Dome, created as a massive ode to the year 2000 complete with art displays, computer exhibits and a multi-million dollar price-tag, is a good example of the movie opening mentality--creating a huge structure in honor of one fleeting moment. To believe that one single moment in time is more significant than those that came before or will come after it is to ignore that basic principle that history is a trajectory made up of countless events over a span of time.

That January 8, 1900 edition of The Crimson, with its brief look at the happenings of the previous century, is of course not the kind of in-depth review needed for an entire millennium. But its approach of examining the past in appreciation and then moving on to the future without hype, without fear of apocalypse or blind expectation of a momentous event, is worth emulating.

After all, life will probably go on after New Year's Eve, and we should be able to enjoy it without the prospect of another millennial celebration in another 1,000 years to keep us going.