A MENTAL GAME
Christopher Caldwell introduced something new in a recent issue of the Weekly Standard. "It is a mental game you can play to bring the past ever closer," he wrote. "You take an event that seems recent, figure out the number of years since it happened, and then count back from there. Almost inevitably, you find that recent things happened longer ago than you think."
Some "for instances"--
Bill Clinton's 1992 election is closer to the 1970's than it is to the present.
Jimmy Carter's inauguration (1977) is as close to Truman's (1949) as it is to Bush's.
The beginning of Eisenhower's administration is closer to Queen Victoria's reign than it is to us.
FDR's arrival in Washington in 1933 is as close to Abe Lincoln's (1861) as it is to today.
And here's some more--
Woodstock (1969) seems like only yesterday, but it's closer to the Great Depression ("Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?) than it is to today.
The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" (both 1963) are closer to the 1920's "Yes, We Have No Bananas" than to the hits of today.
The reason? Caldwell speculates it is because we look at things we've experienced as "alive" and things than happened before as "dead." We have a keen sense of what we've seen and think of it as "recent," while what we haven't seen is all jumbled together into "history."
Just for an experiment, take the year you were born, subtract that from 2005, and then subtract the result from your birth year. For instance, I was born in 1939. That will be 66 years ago next November. Let's see--66 years before 1939 was 1873. That means that when I was born, I was closer to the Battle of Little Big Horn (1876) than to the War in Iraq.
Ye gads! Am I THAT old?
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