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THE BATTALION
Page 3
The Phantom Year 2000
Public menaced by false claim that the millennium has begun
a State
i Columt
ylvania
Hopkins
BY KELLY PREISER
The Battalion
F or the past year, the media bombarded
everyone who would listen with dire
predictions of what the year 2000 might
bring. Millions prepared for disaster, buying
‘Y2K compliant” products, stockpiling their
homes with water and food and ensuring
their banks were Y2K-ready.
However, Jan. 1, 2000 came
and went with only a few mi
nor problems.
Was all the
preparation
worth the effort?
In the sense
that potentially
cataclysmic
/ computer
problems were
solved, the mil
lennium hype
was mostly bene
ficial, as well as
profit bearing.
While some spent
the past year preoc
cupied with the
question, “Where
will I be on the eve of
e millennium?” oth
ers are pondering the
same question now, in
anticipation of New Year’s
Eve 2000, and the coming of 2001.
Why would a 2001 celebration be of any im
portance (except maybe to a Texas A&M junior), es
pecially after the remarkable celebrations that occurred just three
w'eeks ago?
Some people say that a person is one year old after the first year
of life, which also marks the beginning of the second year of life.
In the same way, one begins the 21st year of living after turning
20 and his or her 22nd year after turning 21.
Time can be thought of in the same manner. The Julian Cal
endar never had a year “zero”—the calendar went from 1 B.C. to
1 A.D. With the approach of the year 2000, 1,999 years have been
completed. A millennium does not technically occur until 1,000
years have passed.
The 2,000th year just began, so the end of this year will actu
ally be the end of 1,000 years, and 2001 will be the beginning of
the next millennium.
Western culture seems fascinated with timekeeping. Decades,
centuries and millenniums are celebrated as a result of base-10
mathematics.
Colin Allen, associate professor and assistant department head
in the Departments of Philosophy and Humanities said, “Our num
bering system is based on the number of fingers (including thumbs)
we have, hence, a base-10 numerical system. If we’d evolved with
fewer lingers, or ignored our thumbs, the roliover from 1999 to 2000
would have come much sooner.”
Are these celebrations merely distinguishing humanly created
abstractions of time, or are they substantial?
Linda Radzik, assistant professor of philosophy and humanities
said, “I think the millennium has already occurred. In my opinion,
what marks the change are the little cultural differences—getting
used to saying 2000, trying to figure out what to call this decade.
These little things are what make us reflect on the past and future,
they make it feel like a new era.”
“Not only is ‘time’ itself an illusion as demonstrated by Ein
stein’s theories of relativity, but our divisions or chopping up of time
has historically been and is now completely arbitrary,” Dale Baum,
professor of history, said.
“The entire dating scheme is arbitrary and, by most accounts,
not even accurately zero at the ‘actual’ birth date of a historical Je
sus, which if you believe the estimates, should be placed at about 3
or 4 B.C. If this is right, the true 2,000th anniversary of that birth
day passed without a fanfare a few years ago,” Allen said.
Daniel Bornstein, professor of history and director of the Inter
disciplinary Program in Religious Studies, said, “Our obsession
w ith the year 2000 as numbered from the birth of Jesus is shaped
by our particular cultural blinders ... throughout history, various
states have begun the new year on other dates. On Dec. 25, style of
the nativity, for instance, or Mar. 25, style of the incarnation. Of
course, these dates refer to Christian history, as does our conven
tion of dividing history into two grand periods.”
Other cultures’ calendars differ and therefore they celebrate the
new year at different times. The Chinese celebrate the new year in
February and the Muslim calendar numbers years from Mo
hammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina.
With these variations, it is impossible to measure time accurately
and to have everyone on the same timeline. By means of applying
Western cultural standards, should one expect another millennium
celebration in 2001? Or will the turnover from 1999 to 2000 suf
fice, letting the real start of the millennium go by as any other New
Year’s celebration?
“I think people will have big New Year’s parties next year, since
so many decided not to this year,” Allen said.
“I didn’t make any special preparations for this one, I definite
ly won’t make any for next. I’m planning on celebrating New
Year’s next year just the same as I did this year. Any excuse for a
party is just line with me,” Jeff Walker, junior construction science
major, said.
With this in mind, the question, ‘where were you on the eve of the
3rd millennium?’ may now be better stated, ‘where will you be...?’
GRAPHICS BY
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