Let's Talk 2000


January 1, 1996, Volume 2, Issue 1


The heartbeat of 2000 A.D. from cyberspace"

Topics covered in this issue:

The Millennium Doctor Speaks:
News from the Field: Talk from the Forum: New Millennial Sites:


The Millennium Doctor Speaks:

"Taking the pulse of 2000 A.D."

Happy New Year 1996! As Tennyson said, "Ring out the old, ring in the new... Ring out the false, ring in the true." The bimillennial era has begun, 1996--2001! Look for '96 to be one of exploration, then '97 and '98 as preparation. Then come 1999--2001, the New Millennium celebrations will be in full swing. And if the past is any predictor of the future, we will as Hillel Schwartz says, "fear 1999, meditate on 2000, and demand great things from 2001!"

Everything up until now has just been the warm-up act. That's right, all the millennial "prophets of doom" and "wizards of hype" have just been the pre-show. The "scare-mongers" and "award-givers" will not likely perform the main event. Rather than horror and hype, people are looking for hope. Our greatest challenge in '96 will be to find that hope--deep and wide enough, which can speak to the human soul, gripped by the end of an age.


News from the Field:

"Here is the latest news on year 2000 efforts"

TOP TEN HEROES NAMED FOR 1995
What do Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Scott O'Grady have in common? Each were recently recognized by The Millennium Society as among the "Top 10 Heroes of 1995." Founded in 1979, The Millennium Society's main purpose is to permanently endow a "Millennium Scholars Program" to support the "heroes of tomorrow."

Each year since 1984, the Society has polled its worldwide membership to determine who inspires them the most. The top ten heroes have then been announced at yearly press conferences, this year at the National Press Club. Previously "top ten's" have beenm announced at the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China, Times Square in New York, and aboard the QE2.

The Millennium Society's 10 Heroes of 1995 are: Each honoree was sent an official invitation - donated and engraved by Tiffany & Co. of New York - to join previous recipients including President Reagan, Bob Hope and Vaclav Havel at COUNTDOWN 2000 THE WORLD MILLENNIUM BALL at the Great Pyramids at Giza, Egypt on December 31, 1999.

Since 1979, the Millennium Society has been planning a celebration which will not leave people with a hangover the next day, but one which "results in a scholarship endowment which will spur even greater achievements in the next thousand years." Source: meadwell@alaska.net

GET YOUR MILLENNIAL CASUAL WEAR
With the millennium just 1,825 days away, don't tell me you don't have anything to wear! "New Millennium Designs" of Nashua, NH has just released a whole line of artistic causal clothing under the trademark of "World Countdown 2000." Their t-shirts feature slogans such as "where we've been, who we are, where we're going" or "Celebrating humanity's march into a new century." Contact: Mark Yacco at (603) 880-0938.


Talk from the Forum:

"Here is a recap of recent conversations"

APOCALYPTIC OR AMAZING CENTURY?
If the 20th century was one of the most violent and destructive ones in history, did any latter-day "apocalyptics" foresee it? As prophetic as it sounds, one Talk 2000 academic, Charles Miller <malik@unm.edu> contends they did. He points to the early 20th century writings of Solovyoy, Three Conversations on War, Progress, and the End of World History, Including a short tale of the antichrist and supplements. Apparently Solovyoy predicted a coming apocalypse, including, the emergence of "a Zionist state, the Japanese defeat of China" and other events. Add to that the Russian gulags, the German concentration camps, the Chinese cultural revolution, the American atomic bombs, and Miller contends that the 20th century has enough apocalyptic events to allow for a symbolic correlation with book of "Revelation." A new book The Age of Extremes: a history of the world, 1914-1991 (Patheon Books, 627 p., by Eric Hobsbawn) agrees we experienced a century of "unprecendented violence and destruction" but attempts to balance that realization with its unprecendented prosperity and advances."

TAKE A MILLENNIUM SNAPSHOT
Almost like clockwork each month on Talk 2000, you can expect some new Moses to come down from Mt. Sinai with tablets telling us how we ought to celebrate the year 2000. Last month was no different. Millennialist Greg Wright (gsb@macronet.org) recommends we make the "turn of the millennium from 1999 to 2000 the most photographed and videographed moment in history." Wright proposes that this "mega-participatory" event be built as a public/private art project which would create by 2005 a navigable database of tens of millions of images of people, places and events the world over. Imagine in 2033 plugging in a CD-Rom with your great-grandkids, showing them a spectacular east to west sunrise captured at the dawn of third millennium in 2000. Ah, "millennial memories," something that would warm the heart of any Kodak corporation stock-holder!

WHAT KIND OF MILLENNIAL ANIMAL ARE YOU?
This month, Talk 2000 medieval specialist, Richard Landes <rlandes@acs.bu.edu> took up the distinction between the scholarly wise "owl" whose hoots confirm we are still deep in the night, as opposed to the brash "rooster" who crows in anticipation of an imminent redemptive dawn. Landes feels these two millennial animals often relate dysfunctionally. Early on in an apocalyptic cycle, the rooster is allowed to dominate the public discourse. Late in the cycle after the millennial date has passed, the owl erases all evidence of rooster's prophecy. Talk 2000's "Doomsday Man," Ted Daniels <mpred@usa.pipeline.com> offered four traits he sees in today's roosters, 1) an overwhelming sense of self-righteousness, 2) the complete lack of humor, 3) the tendency to nurse grudges, and 4) an indefatigable sense of their own importance. Bob McClenon <rmcclenon@syncorp.com> noted that when farm roosters persist in crowing when it is still night, they are likely to end up in a cooking pot! He confessed, rather than be a rooster or an owl, he rather be a cat, given the felines own cycle of life which has little regard for night or day. Long live Garfield, eh!


New Millennial Sites:

"Here are new sites in cyberspace"

THE MILLENNIUM SOCIETY
The group planning the big New Year's Eve 1999 "World Millennial Ball" at the Great Pyramids of Egypt and 23 other sites around the world just put up a home page. Their motto: "Do Something Great For Civilization... and Have A Ball Doing It!"
http://www.alaskanet.com/party1999

ROSE PARADE 2000
Millions of people will celebrate New Year's Day 2000 and 2001 by watching the Tournament of Roses. It's more than just a parade and football game. It's America's New Year Celebration, a greeting to the world on the first day of the year. For a peak at the community spirit and love of pageantry that has thrived in Pasadena for more than a century, check out:
http://www.citycent.com/ccc/roses.htm

Contact Information:

"Your link to the third millennium"

Talk 2000 Forum Home Page: http://humnet.humberc.on.ca/talk2000.htm

Talk 2000 Newsgroup: bit.listserv.2000ad-l

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Submissions of newsworthy items: 2000ad-l@usc.edu

Publisher & editor: talk2000@rmii.com
Jay Gary , aka The Millennium Doctor
author, The Star of 2000
(719) 636-2000 Phone

Publication keywords: groups, events, society, millennium

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LET''S TALK 2000 is a trademark of Bimillennial Press, Inc.