Column: The '00s weren't all bad

By Lindsay Eanet

Published Dec. 4, 2009

The new meme in opinion writing seems to be, "Let's talk about how awful the '00s were." And it's a fitting one. I mean, not a whole lot really changed. This decade started on a wave of unfounded anxiety and fear mongering propagated by idiots and conspiracy theorists (Y2K), and it is ending on a wave of unfounded anxiety and fear mongering propagated by idiots and conspiracy theorists (cable news).

The TIME Magazine piece on the subject points to greed and too much emphasis on self-interest for all this decade's failures. And yes, our generation will be left to years, possibly decades of damage control from past generations' ineptness and greed that manifested itself these past few years. But it's not like these misplaced cultural values are unique to this decade. We've had these economic problems before and the mantra of "greed is good" has been around since the '80s, and the idea long before.

This decade might be deserving of TIME's title, "Worst Decade Ever," but we'd be remiss if someone didn't point out the good stuff.

The idea of commonality has been a recurring theme in this column, and the decade has given us glimpses of how, even in one of the most divisive periods of our nation's history, there are still moments where we are united. I'm talking, of course, about the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Watching Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte obliterate the competition during the 4x200m freestyle relay, even I couldn't help joining in a fist-raised chant of "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" That? That was totally freaking awesome.

But most of the aspects of the '00s that have been awesome manifested themselves most clearly in the arts and leisure (see sports, above). The creativity, innovation and good humor required to survive such difficult times also made them a hell of a lot better.

A boy wizard and his British single-mom creator gave youth around the world a common shared literary experience and instilled an essential love of reading in millions of children in an age where books compete with video games and Disney divas for affection. "Arrested Development" happened. In fact, scripted television as a whole became good again and now includes shows with intelligent, witty women at the forefront.

There's a belief this decade's overemphasis on cyber-communication (texting, tweeting, what have you) is dumbing us down. But there have been successful efforts at creating original art in the digital age. This summer, I wrote a feature about the youth poetry slam movement, long existing in other forms but exploding in the latter half of the decade (with the help of Russell Simmons) and saw how gives it young people an eloquent soapbox. And Twitter might be narcissistic and inane for the most part, but didn't Billy Shakespeare say brevity was the soul of wit (@Polonius32 tweets: “Just got stabbed by @PrinceOfDenmark. Very painful. Gotta stop hiding behind curtains. @Laertes AVENGE ME.”)?

We've had a few massive obstacles to face this decade. But we also have an array of new tools by which we can connect to the international community with ease and are coming into adulthood at a time when creativity and enterprise are such valuable commodities, and this combination can create some real positive changes.

If we can continue to shift the emphasis toward the more positive aspects of this decade and the generation that came of age in it — especially creativity and an increased global savvy — then we can make the next decade (the '10s?) even more awesome.