What are/will be the defining characteristics of the 20th Century in Retrospect?

[alfred russel]

People will remember the 20th century as the age of simultaeneous progress and terrible human disasters. The great totalitarian regimes and the world wars will stand out; people will no more forget Hitler, Stalin and Mao than they have forgotten Ghengis Khan.

I tend to agree, but I've seen statistics showing that the 20th century was one of the safest and least prone to violence, even with what seems to us to be rather significant disasters.

[Valmy]

forgotten Ghengis Khan.

There is a pretty popular book about him that came out recently that was practically praising the guy.  So maybe in the future they will be studying how Hitler and Stalin made all the progress possible or something.

[Eddie Teach]

Genghis Khan was pretty spectacularly successful from a medieval Mongol point of view.

[Razgovory]

I imagine that 20th century will be remembered as the Age Ideology, where nations devoted themselves entirely to one strange ideal or another.  Typically with catastrophic results.

I seriously doubt that.  People will remember the 20th century depending on how it impacts their current world.  Those catastrophic results are not impacting them so they will probably not think of that.  Similar with the failed ideologies of the 20th century.  The advances of information technology and the like on the other hand will be remembered because they will still be around impacting human life.

We don't remember the 12th century as the age of windmills.  We remember it as as the age of Crusades.  I think the other thing that people will remember about the 20th century is the fall of Europe.

[PDH]

Seeing as how we are still at the end of the last glories of the 20th century, nobody knows yet.  We are like the diviners in 1912 trying to figure out how they would be viewed by an unknown future.

[Malthus]

People will remember the 20th century as the age of simultaeneous progress and terrible human disasters. The great totalitarian regimes and the world wars will stand out; people will no more forget Hitler, Stalin and Mao than they have forgotten Ghengis Khan.

I tend to agree, but I've seen statistics showing that the 20th century was one of the safest and least prone to violence, even with what seems to us to be rather significant disasters.

Advances in medical science, nutrition, the "Green Revolution" in farming, etc., I would assume saved more lives than died in the wars and purges of the 20th. Also, everyday life got considerably less violent for most people. Hence, simutaneous disasters and progress.

[Valmy]

We don't remember the 12th century as the age of windmills.  We remember it as as the age of Crusades.

We do not remember the Great Northern War, the War of Spanish Succession, the zillions of other horrible things that happened in the 18th century.  We remember the Enlightenment and all the technological and political changes that followed.  Because they actually impact us.

[mongers]

Seeing as how we are still at the end of the last glories of the 20th century, nobody knows yet.  We are like the diviners in 1912 trying to figure out how they would be viewed by an unknown future.

OMG, PDH predicts Aug.2014 = WW3. 

[Malthus]

forgotten Ghengis Khan.

There is a pretty popular book about him that came out recently that was practically praising the guy.  So maybe in the future they will be studying how Hitler and Stalin made all the progress possible or something.

People in Asia sometimes think of Hitler as 'that guy who failed to unite Europe and crush the Russians. Pity.'   

[Razgovory]

We don't remember the 12th century as the age of windmills.  We remember it as as the age of Crusades.

We do not remember the Great Northern War, the War of Spanish Succession, the zillions of other horrible things that happened in the 18th century.  We remember the Enlightenment and all the technological and political changes that followed.  Because they actually impact us.

I imagine the Russians and Swedes remember the Great Northern War.  In the US we sorta remember the American Revolution, and I think the French Revolution looms fairly large in mindset of the West.

[Malthus]

We don't remember the 12th century as the age of windmills.  We remember it as as the age of Crusades.

We do not remember the Great Northern War, the War of Spanish Succession, the zillions of other horrible things that happened in the 18th century.  We remember the Enlightenment and all the technological and political changes that followed.  Because they actually impact us.

One thing you are forgetting is how very appealing the Nazis are as villians. In those 18th century wars, there is little to memorably tell the antagonists apart - sure the Sun King often acted like a would-be Hitler, particularly towards the Hugenots, but he did not have the Nazi's sense of deliberate menace. I'm willing to bet Nazis as stock villians will persist for centuries. 

[Eddie Teach]

We don't remember the 12th century as the age of windmills.  We remember it as as the age of Crusades.

We do not remember the Great Northern War, the War of Spanish Succession, the zillions of other horrible things that happened in the 18th century.  We remember the Enlightenment and all the technological and political changes that followed.  Because they actually impact us.

I dunno, seems Scandis on the board bring up the Great Northern War a lot and Americans certainly remember the Revolution. One doesn't typically need to delve as deeply into history to know the broad geopolitical strokes of an era as they do the technological and social changes.

[Valmy]

I imagine the Russians and Swedes remember the Great Northern War.  In the US we sorta remember the American Revolution, and I think the French Revolution looms fairly large in mindset of the West.

Yeah hardly anybody knows a damn thing about the American Revolution or French Revolution themselves.  They remember the political ideas that came out of it.  And I am sure Jews will always remember WWII but I thought we were talking about how it will be remembered generally.  if you bring up the 18th century I doubt even a Swede will go 'Ah!  The Century of the Great Northern War!' rather, presuming this Swede has an opinion at all on the 18th century, will  be talking about the Enlightenment and the Revolutions both political and economic.

I just think we are too close to the mass killings of the 20th century.  I just think the impact on human life and technology and so forth were so massive they will vastly overshadow all the events that today, since they are still in living memory, we view as so important.

[Razgovory]

We don't remember the 12th century as the age of windmills.  We remember it as as the age of Crusades.

We do not remember the Great Northern War, the War of Spanish Succession, the zillions of other horrible things that happened in the 18th century.  We remember the Enlightenment and all the technological and political changes that followed.  Because they actually impact us.

One thing you are forgetting is how very appealing the Nazis are as villians. In those 18th century wars, there is little to memorably tell the antagonists apart - sure the Sun King often acted like a would-be Hitler, particularly towards the Hugenots, but he did not have the Nazi's sense of deliberate menace. I'm willing to bet Nazis as stock villians will persist for centuries. 

We sorta remember the guillotine as the symbol of a bloodthirsty bureaucracy.

[Razgovory]

I imagine the Russians and Swedes remember the Great Northern War.  In the US we sorta remember the American Revolution, and I think the French Revolution looms fairly large in mindset of the West.

Yeah hardly anybody knows a damn thing about the American Revolution or French Revolution themselves.  They remember the political ideas that came out of it.  And I am sure Jews will always remember WWII but I thought we were talking about how it will be remembered generally.  if you bring up the 18th century I doubt even a Swede will go 'Ah!  The Century of the Great Northern War!' rather, presuming this Swede has an opinion at all on the 18th century, will  be talking about the Enlightenment and the Revolutions both political and economic.

Wait, what?  You sorta lost on the first sentence.  I was under the impression that the political ideas of both Revolutions predated the revolutions themselves.  And Hell, in the US we have a hard time agreeing what the American Revolution was actually about.