How Many World Shaking Events Have You Lived Throug

amadeus said:
It would if you lived in Sarajevo, or you were Linda Tripp. :)
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True but I don't think domestic American things or even regional wars like Vietnam or Afghanistan count as world shaking.
 
I lived through the horror of Nickelback and Justin Bieber.
 
1. Collapse of USSR
2. 9/11
3. Covid
4. The invention of the Web
5. The invention of hip-hop music
 
So has this shifted from world-shaking to personally important? I agree that Star Wars was significant for science fiction fans and anyone interested in the art and science of special effects. And some aspects of the movie have become mainstream over most of the world.

I have fond memories of standing in a blocks-long lineup to see it; that was one of the shared cultural experiences of the fans at that time, since the movie was insanely popular even months after its premiere. But how significant was this to the rest of the world?

Not everyone got it at the time, and some people still don't. I still encounter people on social media who don't know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek and don't care; they think it's all the same thing, and honestly couldn't give half a damn if you try to explain it to them. Obviously Star Wars didn't make any sort of impression on them.
 
Personal experiences would be a different list, I think. For me, it wouldn't even include everything I've listed above (I don't know if the collapse of the Soviet Union had any effect on my life). Granted, it's all from my perspective. With the exception of Covid-19, I'm taking educated guesses at the global impacts of everything on my list.

My inclusion of hip-hop and Star Wars is in their impact on culture, on the artistic and business sides of the entertainment industries, and into other branches of culture, as well as having a global impact. It's probably not accurate to say that, without Star Wars, we wouldn't have had The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or the MCU, in the sense that something else might have triggered the same avalanche with a different stick of dynamite, but I do think that Star Wars was that stick of dynamite. Incidentally, I think Star Wars gave Star Trek a big boost. Without Star Wars, I think Star Trek might be more like Lost in Space, in terms of its cultural impact. You'd still have the original series, and maybe a movie reboot sometime in the last 20 years, and maybe Netflix or Amazon would be doing a series (because if Star Wars hadn't triggered the avalanche in 1977, maybe something else would have, later).

Some other things I was thinking of including:
  • The growth of China in the last 20 years. I'm thisclose to including this one on my list. I can't tell yet if it's premature, which is why I haven't included it yet. I don't have the perspective of history yet.
  • Climate change is more of a process than an event.*
  • The "Arab Spring" could have been enormous, but seems to have fizzled out.


* In fact, it's remarkable how little impact the individual environmental disasters have had in the United States, outside of the regions directly affected. Partly that's because they're discrete events, and the linkage with climate change can only be made when you're looking at the big picture. Still, the near-destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina has had almost no effect on most Americans. Likewise the flooding of New York City and Houston, and the fires in California. I won't be surprised if, years hence, Hurricane Katrina is known only to people in the city that was hit and to history nerds like me, like the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900. (Is there anyone from Galveston here? Is that storm even part of local lore?) And as you might expect, climate-change related events outside of the US are even further from people's lives and minds here. We hear about fires in Australia on the news once in a while, but I don't know how many Americans could even tell you that drought played a role in the Syrian Civil War.
 
Valka D'Ur said:
So has this shifted from world-shaking to personally important? I agree that Star Wars was significant for science fiction fans and anyone interested in the art and science of special effects. And some aspects of the movie have become mainstream over most of the world.

I have fond memories of standing in a blocks-long lineup to see it; that was one of the shared cultural experiences of the fans at that time, since the movie was insanely popular even months after its premiere. But how significant was this to the rest of the world?

Not everyone got it at the time, and some people still don't. I still encounter people on social media who don't know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek and don't care; they think it's all the same thing, and honestly couldn't give half a damn if you try to explain it to them. Obviously Star Wars didn't make any sort of impression on them.
Click to expand...

It's whatever people post. I disagree with some of it.

I overlooked the internet but that one would count.
 
EgonSpengler said:
Personal experiences would be a different list, I think. For me, it wouldn't even include everything I've listed above (I don't know if the collapse of the Soviet Union had any effect on my life). Granted, it's all from my perspective. With the exception of Covid-19, I'm taking educated guesses at the global impacts of everything on my list.

My inclusion of hip-hop and Star Wars is in their impact on culture, on the artistic and business sides of the entertainment industries, and into other branches of culture, as well as having a global impact. It's probably not accurate to say that, without Star Wars, we wouldn't have had The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or the MCU, in the sense that something else might have triggered the same avalanche with a different stick of dynamite, but I do think that Star Wars was that stick of dynamite. Incidentally, I think Star Wars gave Star Trek a big boost. Without Star Wars, I think Star Trek might be more like Lost in Space, in terms of its cultural impact. You'd still have the original series, and maybe a movie reboot sometime in the last 20 years, and maybe Netflix or Amazon would be doing a series (because if Star Wars hadn't triggered the avalanche in 1977, maybe something else would have, later).
Click to expand...
Wide-reaching pop culture impacts? Okay, fair enough (though I have no idea what hip-hop is; I'm guessing it has nothing to do with bunny rabbits). Yes, Star Wars' success did have a huge impact on why we got a series of Trek movies rather than a TV series (fun fact: while some of the scripts for that canceled series turned up rewritten for TNG, others got turned into fan film productions by the Phase II/New Voyages company that James Cawley runs; if you're interested in ST fan films, I've posted a bit about them in the All Things Star Trek thread in A&E).

It's remarkable how little impact the individual environmental disasters have had in the United States, outside of the regions directly affected. Partly that's because they're discrete events, and the linkage with climate change can only be made when you're looking at the big picture. Still, the near-destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina has had almost no effect on most Americans. Likewise the flooding of New York City and Houston, and the fires in California. I won't be surprised if, years hence, Hurricane Katrina is known only to people in the city that was hit and to history nerds like me, like the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900. (Is there anyone from Galveston here? Is that storm even part of local lore?) And as you might expect, climate-change related events outside of the US are even further from people's lives and minds here. We hear about fires in Australia on the news once in a while, but I don't know how many Americans could even tell you that drought played a role in the Syrian Civil War.
Click to expand...
In large countries, it's easy to shrug off non-local environmental events/climate-change-related disasters. Floods only reach so far. But drought and other climate-related catastrophes in California means higher food prices for some items here in Canada, since we have such a short growing season in comparison. Our fresh fruit and veggies we get in winter come from California and Florida for the most part, though some is imported from various Asian countries as well. This is why it's annoying when people say the truckers should be prohibited from crossing the border; my answer is "Do you like to eat? Yes? Great, then you should understand why they're classified as essential workers and are not prohibited."

Fires are a different thing, though, since smoke doesn't care about international boundaries. The Fort McMurray fire we had in my province 5 years ago was visible from the International Space Station, and it's still bemusing to me that a woman I was having a tense argument with on YouTube (a Richard Dawkins' page) paused her vitriol and asked if I was okay (by that time the smoke had spread across much of North America and it had made the news in New Orleans, where she was). I assured her that I was several hundred miles south of the fire, so was in no danger from that, just that the air was very smoky and breathing was difficult for people with respiratory problems. Turns out that when she was not preaching intelligent design, we could have some good conversations about several other topics, though she has some weird notions about Canada.

Zardnaar said:
It's whatever people post. I disagree with some of it.

I overlooked the internet but that one would count.
Click to expand...
When it actually started, or when it got popular? My understanding is that it actually began long before most ordinary people got into it.

I suppose Wikipedia might qualify if we're going with culture that's not necessarily political. Decades ago, if you wanted to look something up you either headed for the library to check the Britannica or the Farmer's Almanac. For instance, back in 1994 when my Gussy was stung (after trying to catch and kill a bee), I had to go to the library to look up the possible effects of bee stings on cats. It happened on a day when the vet wasn't open so I couldn't phone and ask; I had to walk to the library, look it up, and walk back - total time about 90 minutes as opposed to 90 seconds to look it up online nowadays. Now people usually head to Wikipedia as their first stop, in spite of the fact that some Wikipedia articles are rife with factual errors and bias. It's exasperating when someone implies that "everything" is there... no, it's not. Just as not every book is available on Amazon, or in e-book form.
 
Valka D'Ur said:
Wide-reaching pop culture impacts? Okay, fair enough (though I have no idea what hip-hop is; I'm guessing it has nothing to do with bunny rabbits). Yes, Star Wars' success did have a huge impact on why we got a series of Trek movies rather than a TV series (fun fact: while some of the scripts for that canceled series turned up rewritten for TNG, others got turned into fan film productions by the Phase II/New Voyages company that James Cawley runs; if you're interested in ST fan films, I've posted a bit about them in the All Things Star Trek thread in A&E).


In large countries, it's easy to shrug off non-local environmental events/climate-change-related disasters. Floods only reach so far. But drought and other climate-related catastrophes in California means higher food prices for some items here in Canada, since we have such a short growing season in comparison. Our fresh fruit and veggies we get in winter come from California and Florida for the most part, though some is imported from various Asian countries as well. This is why it's annoying when people say the truckers should be prohibited from crossing the border; my answer is "Do you like to eat? Yes? Great, then you should understand why they're classified as essential workers and are not prohibited."

Fires are a different thing, though, since smoke doesn't care about international boundaries. The Fort McMurray fire we had in my province 5 years ago was visible from the International Space Station, and it's still bemusing to me that a woman I was having a tense argument with on YouTube (a Richard Dawkins' page) paused her vitriol and asked if I was okay (by that time the smoke had spread across much of North America and it had made the news in New Orleans, where she was). I assured her that I was several hundred miles south of the fire, so was in no danger from that, just that the air was very smoky and breathing was difficult for people with respiratory problems. Turns out that when she was not preaching intelligent design, we could have some good conversations about several other topics, though she has some weird notions about Canada.


When it actually started, or when it got popular? My understanding is that it actually began long before most ordinary people got into it.

I suppose Wikipedia might qualify if we're going with culture that's not necessarily political. Decades ago, if you wanted to look something up you either headed for the library to check the Britannica or the Farmer's Almanac. For instance, back in 1994 when my Gussy was stung (after trying to catch and kill a bee), I had to go to the library to look up the possible effects of bee stings on cats. It happened on a day when the vet wasn't open so I couldn't phone and ask; I had to walk to the library, look it up, and walk back - total time about 90 minutes as opposed to 90 seconds to look it up online nowadays. Now people usually head to Wikipedia as their first stop, in spite of the fact that some Wikipedia articles are rife with factual errors and bias. It's exasperating when someone implies that "everything" is there... no, it's not. Just as not every book is available on Amazon, or in e-book form.
Click to expand...

Internet becoming a thing in the 90's. But yeah you could wind it back to the invention I suppose.
 
El_Machinae said:
A few decades ago, I was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Click to expand...
Not on my list. I didn't even notice. :p
 
Financial crisis, 9/11, covid.

Also, tbh, Trump.

More "neutral" things - wireless and mobile phones becoming mainstream, and web 2.0.
 
I'm a bit too young for the birth of C and Unix, but I got to experience VIC-20 and C=64. And this thread of course.
 
Kyriakos said:
Early 2000s internet, when you would play AOEII against middleschoolers who would rage-quit in every game.
Click to expand...

Command and Conquer RQs in 4 minutes or so.

Got my win rate to 66% overall around 80% with NOD in C&C3.
 
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