How will these years be remembered?

Just a little brainstorming session about the socio-cultural "meta-tags" that will be replied to the years we are currently living through. To give the debate a bit of shape, let's define "these years" as the early post-boom years: 2008 to whenever (2012?). Include roughlyt 2 or 3 years on either side of 2010.

What, good and bad, will stick in people's minds about this time? Just as tie-dyes and bellbottoms are linked to the 1960s and disco and punk are iconic of the 1970s, what markers can we see taking shape, if any?

For the hardcore gloom-heads out there. remember: If things get steadily worse over the next 10 or 20 years, people will probably look back quite fondly on these years! So keep that in mind when formulating your responses.

A few to start off:

TSA airline scanners
"Social media" (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) hype
Wall Street goes on autopilot: Algo-trading, robo-signing, etc.


More?

reply to post by silent thunder


A cultural upheaval engendered by "diglossic" worldviews based on social class. The vast majority of people living in a situation not quite as exaggerated as RoboCop, while the status quo burn their vanities in the bonfire of a microcosmic globalism, repeating a dull paradigm over every square foot. The masses continue to "check out" as the Drug War totally eliminates dialogue and keeps the drugs flowing; as Big Pharma, through mass marketing, drowns out any discernible doctor-patient dialogue and keeps the customers flowing. Technology is only harmful when the dispossessed and uneducated utilize it. Meanwhile, it is personalized and creates imaginary worlds for the people that pay top dollar. 3D television sucks you in, internet porn sucks you in, flashing lights suck you in, social networking sucks you in...and in the end, the "in" is solitary and impersonal, because everyone's "in" is different; ironically, at the same time, everyone's "in" is identical in its ability to distract, absorb and totally neutralize an otherwise dispossessed, depressed, and oppressed people. "Green" (in either sense), "Left", "Marx" and "Darwin" are semantically hollow for most, easy scapegoats for many, repurposed brands for a few, and utterly unrecognisable by all parties concerned.

Paulo Freire was right: the oppressed, given the opportunity and left unchecked, will just as easily become the oppressors.

I, for one, don't see a way out. Enjoy the ride.