Reflections on the First Decade of the 2000s
When calendrical milestones pass, however arbitrary they are, they induce reflection. We look back with a feeling of incredulity at all that happened in what feels like no time. We peer into the fearsome, onrushing future. We catalog and schematize and make lists.
List-making for the end of the first decade of the 2000s is in full swing. At least in the United States, which loves to order priorities, we are being told who were the most important celebrities, the crucial leaders, the most corrupt tycoons. But when those celebrities and leaders fall from memory, what will be the decade’s legacy in ideas?
What follows, with thanks to several thoughtful interlocutors, is an admittedly rough draft of a brief history of ideas for the 2000s.
THE END OF EXCEPTIONALISM: It dawned on the West in these years, and America especially, that its preeminence and specialness could end. Cave-dwelling clerics and ragtag insurgent squads waged war against the great Western powers, often making up in brutal effect what they lacked in sophisticated firepower.
Vigor and energy seemed to transfer to a resurgent third world, which began to export not just things, but also innovations like a $2,000 car. Western politicians found themselves pledging to discover jobs that other countries could not do for less; fewer and fewer were found.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: Public and private purpose blurred. Governments worldwide outsourced public duties — in the case of the United States, even warfare — to private firms, while private firms turned to public coffers to socialize their risks. In George W. Bush, the United States had its first M.B.A. president. His predecessor, Bill Clinton, leaped from public service to making millions, while doing more to fight AIDS through private organizing than as president. A social enterprise, blending the profiteering and do-gooding instincts, became a vocation of choice for educated elites globally.
Market dogma saturated the former socialist world, where governments imposed capitalism from above. A new culture of ethical consumption offered the promise of serving public ends through private buying...
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List-making for the end of the first decade of the 2000s is in full swing. At least in the United States, which loves to order priorities, we are being told who were the most important celebrities, the crucial leaders, the most corrupt tycoons. But when those celebrities and leaders fall from memory, what will be the decade’s legacy in ideas?
What follows, with thanks to several thoughtful interlocutors, is an admittedly rough draft of a brief history of ideas for the 2000s.
THE END OF EXCEPTIONALISM: It dawned on the West in these years, and America especially, that its preeminence and specialness could end. Cave-dwelling clerics and ragtag insurgent squads waged war against the great Western powers, often making up in brutal effect what they lacked in sophisticated firepower.
Vigor and energy seemed to transfer to a resurgent third world, which began to export not just things, but also innovations like a $2,000 car. Western politicians found themselves pledging to discover jobs that other countries could not do for less; fewer and fewer were found.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: Public and private purpose blurred. Governments worldwide outsourced public duties — in the case of the United States, even warfare — to private firms, while private firms turned to public coffers to socialize their risks. In George W. Bush, the United States had its first M.B.A. president. His predecessor, Bill Clinton, leaped from public service to making millions, while doing more to fight AIDS through private organizing than as president. A social enterprise, blending the profiteering and do-gooding instincts, became a vocation of choice for educated elites globally.
Market dogma saturated the former socialist world, where governments imposed capitalism from above. A new culture of ethical consumption offered the promise of serving public ends through private buying...