You mean just like how we learned about the 1920 pandemic?
Oh right, no we didn’t. It was a footnote at best.
Our current lives really aren’t all that special you know.
Uh, what? I absolutely was taught about the 1920s pandemic. Not so much about the disease itself or how the pandemic was handled, admittedly, but certainly about how it affected society and the politics of the time. It wasn’t a whole unit by itself, but it was definitely more than a footnote.
I think this time period in humanity is very special. It really does feel like the make or break of humanity sometimes.
That’s because you’re alive right now. Obviously the events you experience yourself seem weightier than the events you’ve only read about.
Not in the same way.
You could maybe argue atom bombs and cold war was a similar time for such crucial moments in humanity, but now we also got climate change, another rise in fascism, and we got tons of nukes on top. And plenty of other things which I won’t bother to delve into because I should sleep.
The 2020s were very important (and very rough) in Star Trek lore, too. Slightly different, but the similarities are striking…
Imma be honest, most of these events will either be just quickly mentioned or not even taught
Increased forest fires, covid, January 6, Shinzo Abe getting assassinated, and Ukraine will probably be mentioned.
Going past 2022, the India/Canada thing and Palestine will probably only be taught worldwide if they change the status quo. The string of military coups across Africa is definitely going to lead to something bigger, so that will probably be taught, and we’re probably in the “buildup” stages for a future event, when you look at the rise of neofascist leaders just everywhere.
None of these events are noteworthy by themselves. Max they merit part of a sentence as an example of an ongoing trend.
Exception if one of the events turns out to be a handy symbolic point to indicate a change in the world order.
E.g. Serious human contribution to global warming which started in the early 20th century kept a pace and peaked in the early 21st century. Public opinion began to sour after an increased occurrence of climate disasters, such as tsunamis and forest fires.
Or: The Russian successor state to the soviet union did make token efforts to reassert its power in Eastern Europe, such as the 2021 war in Ukraine. However those efforts ultimately proved futile and by 20xx all former Warsaw pact countries, excluding Russia itself, had joined the European union.
I guess it depends on how far out you go. In 500 years, probably not significant. In 50-75 years (I was thinking about 20th century timelines when I was thinking about significance), maybe the forest fires and Jan. 6 aren’t hugely relevant if there’s nothing that builds on them, but COVID, Abe and Ukraine would have been taught in my school. We learned about the Spanish flu, the assaasination of William McKinley and the Crimean war, which seem similar and only the Crimean war was really connected to anything else by our teachers.
We’re in the “Archduke Franz Ferdinand goes for a drive” stage in history.
I wonder if history books will notate the death of a gorilla as the flag for a turning point in social history.
It really depends on what comes next. If the US has a civil war in the next few years over maga, January sixth will matter. Same for if Japan goes very far right as a response. The forest fires probably not. They were the first sign of this wild El Niño though (iirc), so if we pull things together and actually do something about climate change because of all the storms over the next few years, it would be a convenient point to mention.
Unless you’re German. Then there is a 50% chance of going into every little handshake, OR you skip over it entirely to teach more about WW2
I learned in my entire school life NOTHING of history besides about Nazis
“it was a golden age, companies had record profits…”
Hmm… children, in the 2050s, in schools, ah to dream.
These last 5 years have just a utter shit show so many people who shouldn’t have been allowed near power getting it
