Weekly Wisdom | A Quarter Century Reviewed
The end of 2025 marked not just the end of a year, but also the end of the first quarter-century of the new millennium. While an enormous amount of history has transpired over this period, some notable events, people, and developments deserve specific recognition for their impact.
The list:
September 11th, 2001, changed many facets of society, but it most significantly entrenched the neoconservative worldview espoused by the Bush Administration into our foreign policy. The effects of neoconservatism are still being felt, as many elected Democrats and Republicans hold firm to this interventionist ideology.
The Great Recession, or global financial crisis, of late 2007 to 2009, would alter the views around the world of Wall Street and its subservient politicians. Millennials entered the worst job market in a generation, many homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure, and central bankers would use the crisis to keep interest rates historically low for nearly a decade. The inflation we are experiencing today is partially due to policies implemented 15 years ago.
September 11th and the Great Recession led to the election of Barack Obama as president and the rise of the Woke Left. President Obama’s election—our first Black president—could have been a turning point in our nation’s history for racial healing. Instead, President Obama presided over an underperforming economy while fueling racial division. His troubled two terms left America weak, polarized, and desperate.
President Obama’s disastrous presidency directly led to the rise of conservative populism and the election of President Donald Trump. A billionaire and reality tv star, President Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was seen as an impossibility by our pundits. As he continues his second term, it’s reasonable to suggest that President Trump will be the most consequential president in over 50 years.
COVID-19 shaped nearly every facet of society when it hit in early 2020. Debates about the role of government in public health, school protocols, the economics of small AND big business, our supply chains, our relationship with China, and the mental health of society at large were all put under a microscope. When COVID-19 ended, the world was a meaner, more digitized, and more isolated place than before. And the influence of big business reached levels not seen since the Gilded Age.
As all of these historic events and figures took the stage over the last 25 years, the digital revolution continued its relentless growth. The widespread adoption of the Internet in the early 2000s led to the explosion of social media in the late 2000s. The introduction of the iPhone increased Internet and social media adoption as the power of the computer shrank to the size of a hand. And today, we are in the beginning of an AI revolution which will mold every industry and change how we interact with computers all over again.
The last 25 years have seen monumental technological, economic, and political change. And while the changes have mostly improved the living standards of the average American, we are currently a more depressed, angry, anxious, and isolated people. The challenges we face over the next 25 years can be partially addressed by sound policy. Still, a return to traditional values and a rejection of secularism will be vital to restoring a healthy society. That is one of the most important things we can take from reviewing the last quarter-century.
