Americans consider the ten years just past the worst decade in the last half century. Only about a quarter of us hold a generally positive view of the 2000 – 2009 period.
These findings come from the Pew Research Center, a reliable source I sometimes use as a launching pad for columns. These particular results strike me as helpful for weighing the relative importance of historical events we have lived through.
As so often, however, I find John Q. Public’s conclusion too simple. To me, the years from 2000 through 2009 gave us enough good to compensate for at least some of the bad.
In any event, you have to question why anyone wants to judge history by decades. Does it make any more sense than deciding you are “old” when you hit your 60th birthday or past your youth as you reach age 30? Most people love round numbers, especially those ending in zero, but there is something arbitrary about them.
You can easily guess what event most people consider the most important event of the decade. Almost everyone names the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That clear, bright day in New York City and its horror will always stay embedded in the psyche of countless Americans.
Running second in importance, but still far behind, comes the election of Barack Obama as president. No one can reasonably deny the historic impact of this choice. Millions of us rejoiced in the proof that an African-American could be chosen to lead this nation in its highest office.
Had they asked me, I would also have cited as epoch-making the arrival of George W. Bush in the White House, by virtue of a highly politicized Supreme Court decision. His election to a second term in 2004 was also significant. I attribute some of the calamities of this era—the Iraq invasion, civil liberties violations, torture— directly to him
I wonder how many Catholic responders shared my deep disappointment with the leadership of the American bishops. Their failure to follow the example of the pope and oppose the U.S. invasion of Iraq amounted to a serious lapse of moral vision. And the way some of them stood against Barack Obama before and after his election, and also threatened to bar some Catholic candidates from communion, appalled me.
The 90s also brought another great religious tradition to the attention of Americans at large. Unfortunately, some developed a view of Islam as a militant force mobilized against the West. Because of a group of relatively few terrorists, this ancient religion unfairly came to seem largely oriented to violence.
Responders to the Pew survey cited Hurricane Katrina as a major event of the decade. The fearsome power of wind and waves would have been horrific by itself but the bungling of the federal government in responding to it made it much worse. To me. the revelation of how poor people are treated in this rich country was the most shocking aspect of the tragedy.
The near financial collapse in the latter part of the decade in this country and other parts of the world also must count as a terrible event in anybody’s book. So many lives have been affected by the near collapse of the economy. Widespread unemployment continues to oppress millions of people. To cite just one indication of the suffering, currently some six million of Americans have no other income besides food stamps.
Despite the negatives that mar the past decade, many welcome changes have touched our lives desirably. A majority of Americans surveyed recognize the value of major technological and communication devices that have become part of daily life. An astounding 77 percent of us adults now go online as over against fewer than 50 percent in 2000.
Americans across the board now enjoy immediate communication through cell phones, the Internet, electronic books, and email. Even my age peers have been catching up with these devices in increasing numbers. Some of us are learning to use handheld wireless devices and shop online the way our juniors do.
In addition, Google has transformed the way many of us search for information of all kinds. The IPOD put out by Apple has easily brought music to fans young and old. And the range of news and entertainment options has broadened in ways unimaginable in previous decades.
According to the survey, “most see increasing racial and ethnic diversity as a change for the better.” When I recall growing up in Boston suburbs where all too few people of color lived, I would go further and call this an historic breakthrough.
Another finding, one that boosts my morale, has a large majority condemning television “reality shows” as a “change for the worse.” The taste of the American public may not be so bad after all.
Almost 60 percent of those answering the survey feel optimistic that the decade beginning now will be better than its predecessor. Let’s hope they are right.