THE MILLENIUM

The human capacity to be totally illogical never ceases to amaze me. While you are reading this page, time is marching on. The earth is slowly turning and revolving around the sun. The next season is moving infinitesimally closer. And the universe is continuing to expand. Time exists, but our measurement of time is strictly a man-made phenomenon. Time moves ahead continuously, it does not move in 1 second increments, a week at a time, or a year at a time. And yet every culture has designated certain times of year as marking significant milestones in the lives of the people.

On New Year's Eve everyone celebrates. On New Year's Day everyone recovers, then starts making up New Year's Resolutions. Why wait until New Year to start an exercise plan, stop smoking, or whatever else is on the New Year's resolution list? Why not just start now? Or never start at all? Even for those who don't make New Year's Resolutions, the new year is a special event.

Then there is the name of the year itself. This year is called 1997 because people decided to honour the birth of Jesus Christ almost 2000 years ago by starting a new dating system - changing over from BC to AD. The year of Christ's birth is in dispute (some people claim he was actually born in 4 BC). And he was almost certainly not born on December 25. Nowhere in the Bible does it specify the date of Christ's birth, and many authorities feel that the church selected the date of December 25 in order to compete with the pagan religions which had flashy and enjoyable ceremonies at that time of year. A further consideration is the fact that shepherds tended their flocks out in the pastures in spring and summer. By December 25th, they would have returned with their flocks to the community to wait until next spring to go to pasture. But despite all this, December 25, 1997 will be celebrated as it has been for hundreds of years.

This tendency to attach extra significance to certain times of year extends to attaching extra significance to certain years themselves. There has always been an increase in the number of people prophesying doom and disaster at the end of a century. Nowhere is this more pronounced than at the end of a Millenium. We face the end of the Millenium in 3 years time. The psychological effects of this are already beginning to alter our society. History books purporting to summarize the last thousand years of human history are appearing on bookstore shelves. And occultists are making predictions for the 21st century. Some people, in anticipation of increased violence in urban areas, are moving to new and presumably safer areas to live. A new and darker series of television programming has begun to appear (X Files, Millenium), and previously upbeat shows such as the various Star Trek series are becoming darker and more gritty.

How does this affect the Gothic scene? Since Goths embrace the darker side of life, the Millenium will be appealing. As the psychological darkness of the Millenium becomes more pervasive in our society, more people may be drawn into the Gothic scene.

And throughout it all, the world will turn, the universe will continue to expand, and no one will care about our little dramas here on Earth.

Well now. I have said my piece. I invite you to say yours.



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