In a recent book, “Questioning the Millennium,” Dr Stephen J. Gould discusses the misconceptions and mania surrounding the date on which our current century and millennium end and the next begin. He rightly points out the failures of doomsayers who have predicted catastrophes for similar events in the past and the patently absurd importance some have attached to the coming millennial rollover.
I agree with Gould’s apparent conclusion that this is all so much wasted concern. There is nothing scientific about it. No cosmological milestone will be reached, nor will the planets assume a portentous alignment, as some have insisted. Nothing of world-shattering significance happened the last time, nor will it this time.
Gould suggests that we should accept the popular though logically flawed idea that the millennium will begin on Jan. 1, 2000. Perhaps we should even declare it officially, or change the definition of “century” to accommodate the popular opinion. Yet, as he points out, any calendrical purist will bristle at the idea, since a decision by Dionysius Exiguus, 6th Century Roman monk and scholar, demands that the changeover occur on Jan. 1, 2001. Our year-keeping began with the year 1, not 0, and thus the calendar is set.
Shouldn’t we just stop the arguing and start planning the party? I don’t think so. As an educator who has witnessed the decline of logical thinking over the past few decades, I say it is time to hold to the line of reason. However much the general public wants to celebrate the new century and millennium a year early, the logical fact is that it will not occur until Jan. 1, 2001.
Instead of patting ourselves on the back and giving a “raspberry to Little Dennis,” as Gould suggests, I suggest that we as adults and parents consider the child who adds 4 and 4 to get 9. Do we want to tell that child that mathematical imprecision is OK? Exactly when we celebrate the new millennium is irrelevant, but the message we send children is not.
Frankly, I don’t care when anyone holds his or her party, but I do care about the declining cultural, mathematical and scientific literacy in our world. My viewpoint may seem pedantic, extreme or even paranoid, but consider it the next time you encounter an example of brainless behavior.
