Friday, July 08, 2005

... fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, and .... naughties? Can't our powerful leaders and media tell us what to call this awful decade?

It's not just the English language that's having this problem. I ran across an article in German this afternoon: "(K)ein Name für diese Dekade," in SPIEGEL ONLINE. Do we have to wait for VH1 to start running its nostagia shows about this decade's pop stars in 2010 before there's a general consensus on what to call this decade of war and incipient fascism (and the coming sixties-like backlash against them)? Here are some suggestions published in January 2000, but none seem to have stuck even though we're more than five years past the big millenium fireworks displays. Do you have a label you use for the current decade without feeling self-conscious when using it? I'm just curious, because I don't. (And will the "Teens" begin in 2010? Or will we have to wait until 2013?)

[update @ 2:24pm: Wikipedia's artice on the current decade lists more possible names, but points out that this span of ten years "lacks an accepted name". I'm going to cast my vote for The Naughties, and I think it will take hold once these neo-Sixties finally get up a head of steam. After all, even The Sixties didn't really get started until 1967.]

3 comments:

Melissa McEwan said...

How about the "Wake Me When It's Over"s?

Anonymous said...

How about The Roaring Dumbnies

Anonymous said...

Twenties,
Thirties,
Forties,
Fifties,
Sixties,
Seventies,
Eighties,
Nineties,
Naughties,
......ies?

what about 2010 - 2019 ?!!