To this episode of yeah. Yeah. Good morning, folks. Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to our semesters. Final class of the american 1990s. Its good to see you all this morning. Today we are going to take up the contested zakk heists of the 1990 and well examine and discuss several ways in which we can define the decade, a decade that saw the rise of the popular internet, that saw the first ever impeach months of an elected u. S. President. Thats all spasms of deadly terror on american soil. But first, before we really get going, let me go over a few terms that will figure in our assessment this morning and those terms include zeitgeisty, zeitgeisty. This is borrowed from german and refers to the defining or animating spirit of a period of time. The zeitgeist of the nineties in america is contested and will seek to define that site. Guys today. The term ipo also will figure in our discussions. Ipo for our purposes refers to the initial Public Offering of shares of Netscape Communications. In 1995. Netscape was a california startup that made and marketed a breakthrough web browser in the midnineties. And its highly successful ipo, its initial Public Offering of shares in august of 1995, had the effect of signaling to the world at large that there was money to be made on the internet. The ipo of netscape also illuminated the web for millions of people who were then just becoming acquainted with the online world. Well, refer as well to the double murder case brought against former football star o. J. Simpson in what at the time in the midnineties was called the trial of the century. Well also mention the case of the unabomber, this lone wolf terrorists, a harvard graduate who sent deadly package bombs to his targets periodically. From 1978 to 1995 and will refer to federal crime legislation sponsored and pushed by then senator joe biden and which became law in 1994, during the presidency of bill clinton. And this crime legislation has been criticized since then for disproportionately targeting minorities. Well make reference as well to the genocide in rwanda in 1994, when 800,000 people were slaughtered in a period of 100 days. In a gruesome, ethnic driven murder spree that western nations did nothing to stop. Well also mention the y2k phenomenon, the y2k fears, which were that at the end of the decade, at the end of 1999, as the calendar switched to the year 2000, the computers would have trouble recognizing the advent of the new millennium and would think that it was the year 1900 instead. And if that happened, the fear was that everything computer based would go haywire. The y2k fear. So lets consider this zeitgeist the elusive zeit christs of the nineties and take a look at some of the description, ones that will go over later today are the nineties best identified as the internet decade. Is it the decade of spectacle. The terrorism decade. The clinton dominated decade. Was it the seinfeld decade . Were the nineties . The seinfeld decade . Or were the clueless decade. Or were they the best decade id ever . Or was there Something Else . Is the zeitgeist of the 1990s defined by some other term or characterization . And again, its like, guys, this is the fighting spirit of the time of the nineties for our purposes. So lets take a look and let me say at the outset that this presentation is drawn in part from the content of my 2015 book about the year 1995, published by university of calornia press. The book describes major events that year andow those events and developments resonate and reverberate in amecan life. And 1995, notably, was the year in which the internet went from a vague and distant, curious city to a phenomhat would change and alter the way people work. Shop, learn, communicate and interact. So was it to start with . Was it the internet decade . Is that the proper way to define and characterize the zeitgeist of the 1990s . What do you say . Any thoughts . The 1990s as the internet decade. Well, thanks. Yeah. I mean, i think it definitely was the birth of the internet, but i think as we see how marshall used the internet nowadays, i would say that were closer to the internet decade. The is where now you mean is more likely the Internet Time than 20 some years or 30 years ago. So. Okay. Okay. Michael, back to the beginning there. The thing that we have, especially with the internet now that they just began, like the late i think the early 2000, from 2000 to 2010 is really the time receiving inc. Is like every facet of like before that it was just like in there use it and so the catch on would do that goes and so i dont even think about it but do you think it may have been too primitive back in the nineties at least compared to the internet, the online world we know today . Maybe. I dont know if people have like on computers at the time. I think thats probably grown over time. But i think any other thoughts about the nineties as the internet decade. Okay. Lets take a look at some of the arguments for the notion. And its undeniable that there were real breakthroughs in the nineties in terms of making the online world accessible. And im thinking here of the emergence of popular web browsers. Netscapes navigator and microsofts internet explorer. Four two were two ways in which people began to access the online world. They didnt need to code. They didnt need to have anything but a an internet connection, a computer and Web Browsing Software and its important and impressive really to keep in mind how some of the prominent entities of the online world that we know today trace their roots to the 1990s amazon. Com got going, started selling books online in july of 1995 and became this bmf that it is today. But its interesting how almost no one noticed when amazon opened for Business Online in 1995, selling books a very modest start to this entity that became huge within the 2030 year period. Craigslist. It traces its origins to the mid 1990s, attracting what newspapers used to refer to as classified advertising and relied on for a lot of their advertising revenues. Craigslist became a dominant force, began in the bay area in san francisco. And as extended, of course, across the country, google got started. Google was launched in 1998. So you can see that these are three important entities important to us today that have their roots in the 1990s and the ipo that Netscape Communications launched in august of 1995 had the effect of illuminating the web for the world and also signaling that there was money to be made online. There was money be made online. And of course, the online world in the nineties was primitive, thereno doubt about it. You needed taccess the web through a dial up connection, a fuy dial up connection. But this clearly was the launch pad. The launch pad of the internet, the popular internet. Lets take some arguments against it, against this notion that the nineties were the internet decade. It was a primitive online world back in the time. And really only vaguely does the online world of the nineties resemble what we know as the internet today. Its only vaguely familiar portability and social media, which are of course common features of the contemporary online world. Were best, at best vaguely anticipated. In the 1990s, and that was the time when the killer app of the internet was email. Casualties were many among the prominent start ups, among the prominent entities of the nineties, netscape lost to microsoft was crushed by microsoft and what were called e browser wars of the late 1990s, when microsoft mustered all its resources and trained them on this upstart Netscape Communications and effectively crushed it. This got microsoftnto microsofts into some antitrust trble that it successfully dodged in the early 2000s. But nonetheless, there were some ntversial measures that microsoft took to crush netscape, which entually was acquired by america online, and then proceeded to be disappear by aol. Altavista used to be the go to webeah engine in the nineties, but by the early 2000s, it was gone, mostly forgotten, superseded ooe and altavista. Its a remember today. Its remembered as a nostalgic artifact of the 1990s. So too is prodigy, wch w a popular dial up information service, kind of like the internet on training wels, if you will. Prodigy was a popular way to get li in the nineties, didnt make much money, and really did not survive theecade. So the point here is that some of the online entities that began and started up in the nities and were prominent during the decade didnt survive very long. So lets move on to another passive role characterization definition of the nineties. The nineties as a decade of spectacle and maybe thats the defining zeitgeisty of the decade. And think about some of the cases of the 1990s, the o. J. Simpson trial of 1995. The case began in 1994 and unspooled throughout most of the year of 1995. And it was an obsession. It was an obsession for the american population. For many parts of the american population. In 1995, o. J. Was a very popular former football star pitchman and movie actor who was accused of fatally stabbing his wife and her friend outside her condominium in los angeles in 1994. The trial was televised and it gripped america. It was as i say, an obsession as it continued over most of the year 1995 and the trial, which ended in o. J. Simpsons acquittal on both counts, on both murder counts, left us with a number of aphorisms that remain popular, if you will, and perhaps the most prominent are perhaps the decades most important quotation, if it doesnt fit, you must acquit a line used in the closing arguments by johnny cochran, who was ojs lead defense lawyer. And it was a reference to the witness or to the witness gloves that were used by supposedly by the killer of these two people. And during the trial, the prosecution had o. J. Try on the gloves, and they couldnt. And it didnt fit. Johnnie cochran, remember that episode and invoked it in his closing arguments. If it doesnt fit, you must acquit. Perhaps the best known single line of the 1990s, another spectacle of the nineties clearly was that of the impeachment and trial of bill clinton in 1998 and 1999. Clinton was the first us president elected president ever to be impeached and put on trial. He was acquitted at trial before the us senate, but the spectacle was unprecedented. He faced charges of obstction of justice, a perjury stemming from his intermittent affair. With a former intern 27 years his junior. He was acquitted, as i say, but the former intern, Monica Lewinsky, was amed and shunned and only in recent years has reemerged from her, from the shadows. Thcase had the effect of deepening partizan divides rtanitterness in the country. Those divides, those cleavages have become only morprounced in the years since the 1990s. So this this partizan rancor in some respects can be traced to the clinton spectacle. The spectacle of impeachment and trial of a sitting u. S. President. There are more spectacles of the nineties, two cases of terrorism, including the Oklahoma City bombing in april of 1995. That was an essentially a lone wolf terrorist attack that killed 168 people. Most of them in the target building. The Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. Among the victims, the fatal victims were 19 children, 15 of whom were in the Federal Building at a daycare center. This remains to this day the deadliest act of domestic terror in us history. The attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was preceded by exactly two years by the fire assaults undertaken by federal agents on the compound of the Branch Davidian sect near waco, texas. The Branch Davidians were suspected of harboring and amassing a store of illegal weapons. Federal authorities failed in several attempts to try to get them to surrender those weapons. And this led ultimately in april 1993 to this fiery assault on the compound in which more than 75 people were killed. The gulf war of 19 9091 was also a spectacle in some respects. The this was a us led military action to expel iraqi forces that had invaded and occupied neighboring kuwait in august of 1990, the Us Led Coalition in early 1991 expelled the iraqi forces from their occupation of kuwait. The war featured video of showing ecision bombing runs and attacks. Precision and airstrikes by us aircraft on targets in iraq and in kuwait. And even more of a spectacle related to the gul war was the victory parade in washington, dc in june of 1991, which featured tankinhe streets of washington, dc. The decade of spectacle. So why wasnt it the decade of spectacle . Well, no decade is without its spectacles, and the terrorist attacks of 911 really cement that argument. They eclipsed any nineties act of terrorism in lethality, in their awful theatricality. Nearly 3000 people were killed that day, september 11th, 2001. In the coordinated attacks on the twin towers in new york city and on the pentagon. The year 2000 brought an unmatched political spectacle in e United States there was a disputed outcome of the race between george bush and Vice President al gore. This dispu centered around the contested outcome in florida, where officially bush was 537 votes ahead of gore. Whoever won florida wins the election, wins the Electoral College and is sworn in as president. This dispute went on for more than a month. The spectacle of an un settled president ial election and unresolved president ial election wasnt decided until almost middecember 2000, when the Supreme Court essentially decided the outcome in a 5 to 4 vote. And the spectacle of impeachment, of course, was a nineties phenomenon. But it was even more of a phenomenon in the 2000, donald trump was impeached twice by the house of representatives, twice tried and twice acquitted. So impeachment is a spectacle. Then this one, if you will, trumps clintons. So was this the terrorism decade . Was this the decade of terrorism . Lets have a look. It is striking. It really is striking. How often and dramatically terrorism, acts of terrorism intruded on the 1990s and doing so in diverse and deadly ways. The World Trade Center bombing of 1993, a truck bombing that sought to topple the north tower into the south tower and collapsed the World Trade Center. That didnt happen, but six people were killed in this attack in 1993. In february 1993. It was a precursor, although we didnt know it at the time. It was a precursor to 911 when terrorists did target the twin towers and brought them down. The Oklahoma City truck bombing of 1995 was another moment in terrorism in the United States. In fact, it was the deadliest. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terror in american history. 168 people were killed there. The atlanta olympics pipe bomb attack. In 1996 was another case of terrorism intruding on the nineties. And in this instance, it brought it led to the false accusation against the person who discovered the bomb and tried to clear the area at Centennial Park in atlanta, clear the area of spectators early in the morning in 1998, in july 1996, that security guard, Richard Jewell, later was falsely accused by the fbi and the local newspaper in atlanta as being the suspect for having set planted the bomb. It was a false accusation. But jewell had to live with this for quite a while. And the Columbine High School shootings, the massacre at columbine in april of 1999, the shootings and the attempted bombings represents another moment of domestic terrorism. In the nineties. And, of course, there was the unabomber. The unabomber, this recluse who lived in a cabin, a crude cabin in montana, who periodically would make and send package bombs to his victims, to his targets. Heeg this intermittent spree in 197an continued. Until 1995. A total of three people re killed during these intermittent bombings and he continued until he sent to the New York Times d e Washington Post hi socalled manifesto, and told the newaps that he would continue to bomb people unless theyubshed his manifesto after considerable debate in the times and the post agreed to split the costs the publication costs on publicizing and publishing the unabombs manifesto. That publication was very ntversial at the time. In 1995, but it led to the unabombers arrest. His brother, his sister in law recognize some of the writgs in this manifest photo and thought it very much resembled ted kaczynski. They eventually the brother and mother and sister in law eventually alerted authorities who arrested kaczynski at his cabin in 1996. So what are some of the arguments against the notion that the nineties can be described as the terrorism decade . The nineties clearly set in motion or accelerated a National Cycle of fear about terrorism and the prospects of a terrorist attack. But the attacks, the ones weve described, tended to be infrequent. They were not common place in the nineties by any means. And the vulnerabilities of the United States in the nineties were not very well recognized, even after osama bin laden, the head of the al qaeda terrorist group declared war on the United States in 1996. Even then, those threats were not taken terribly seriously. The twin towers were attacked in 2001 to torments. Loss of life. So what do you guys think . Is the terrorism decade an appropriate way to characterize the nineties, or is it perhaps too narrow to constrain an important element of the nineties . For sure, but maybe not defining. Ever. I think similarly to what people previously said about the internet decade or defining the decade as the internet decade. Its kind of premature to state that here. As weve seen an increase in terror attacks and Mass Shootings and other, you know, events of terror in the last two decades rather than in the nineties. So i think that while yes, this was like the introduction to a few decades of terror, i wouldnt say that this is like the defining feature of the decade. If it were the sort of planning the seeds, if you will, for the decades to follow in terms of terrorist attacks or attempted terrorist attacks, wouldnt that be enough to characterize it as a terrorism decade . I disagree. I think that theres definitely other terms that would be better used to describe this decade. And i think that looking at like the the amount of terrorist attacks in like the 2000 and the 20 tens, and we probably what well see in the next decade, i think that its incomparable and while, yes, it did plant seeds, i dont think that, as you said, they were very far and few and far out in between. So i think that its just not necessarily its premature. Okay. All right. Other thoughts about the nineties as a terrorism decade came . I feel like its maybe too narrow to describe an entire decade is just the terrorism decade, especially the nineties itself, like with the internet decade. I think that is when it leads into maybe decades that could be described as the internet decade or terrorism decade. I dont know that you can describe in the nineties as that. If its like the lead up to those. I think again, just the way that it it may have established this National Psychology of fear and i would definitely agree with that. But i think the fact that they werent as commonplace like weve seen Mass Shootings happen so frequently that its almost like they are instantly forgotten our minds because theyre so frequent. But just because of that, i dont know that terrorism is like the way that i would describe the 1990s. Even though it could be considered like a feeder into future decades of terror. But wouldnt the establishment or the the origins of a National Psychology of fear be enough, be sufficient to say, yeah, because of that, the nineties really, where the decade of terrorism. I think is because its like feeding into that its establishing that doesnt necessarily mean that its what defines that entire decade. I think things happened in the nineties that allowed that psychology of fear to develop. But i dont i wouldnt say that that is what describes the entire 1990s, even if that is what kind of contributed to future perspectives surrounding terror and fear in the United States. All right. Fair enough. Natasha, i think we have discussed too much about the nostalgia and a lot of the positive things that people remember about the nineties, as well as calling it repeatedly the clueless decade, which i know well get to, to describe it as the terrorism decade. I feel like that is a two negative term. And when were characterizing the decade, you do have to consider how people remember it. And i dont think that if you ask most people, that is what they would remember from the nineties. Maybe Oklahoma City folks, theyre say thats when their future began essentially, or the nineties never really ended for them because of the the terrorist attack there. The unabomber is remembered perhaps vaguely nowadays. But, you know, this lone wolf terrorism is something that we kind of still live with. And the atlanta bombing of the atlanta olympics bombing, i mean, thats thats the worlds most important, if you will, International Sporting event. Its like these are unmatched moments of terrorism. So wouldnt they be enough to make the argument that this is the terrorism decade . I would argue that, well, the olympics have been attacked before, but none of those acts of terrorism are as significant or as memorable as 911 and 911 alone is enough to say that the nineties cant be the terrorism decade. Okay. Austin, real quickly. Yeah, just to sort of echo the points of other people, i think that the terrorism i personally think that terrorism decade is an apt way to describe the nineties. I think it does sort of get close to describing the spirit of the nineties, but i do think there are more more apt terms that were probably going to get into later. I dont want to jump the gun, but i think terrorism is probably third or fourth on the list of terms that can effectively describe the nineties. So, you know, i think this is the zeitgeist term though. This doesnt really say the nineties zeitgeist were no, not quite. Okay. How about the clinton dominate it decade. How about this one. Theres no denying that bill clinton was a Major Political force of the nineties. The most important Political Force of the american 1990s, arguably his terms in office spanned most of the decade. He was the first democratic president to win two successive president ial elections since franklin roosevelt. He presided over a relatively calm period of american political life, the economy, then, in the nineties, grew impressively, especially in the second half of the decade, fueled in large measure by the emerging internet economy. He governeas a moderate. He governed as a moderate, not as a heavy partizan on one side or another. Anhe notably declared in one of h state of the union addresses, the era of Big Government is over. He did envision a leaner, more efficient, more effective federal government. And to at end, federal government budgets were balanced in the late 1990s, untnkle, unheard of today. Well, form welfare reform wa proposed and enacted. No denying some of the accomplishments of the Clinton Administrations in the nineties. But there more than a few arguments against the notion that it was the clinton dominated decade. His failures lapses, peccadillos weigh significantly against this argument. The rwandan genocide in 1994. Clinton later said that tens of thousands of people their lives could have been saved with prompt military action. Which didnt happen. His defense of marriage act, which was federal legislation he claimed not to really wholeheartedly endorse, but he nonetheless signed it. This legislation to find a marriage as a union of man and woman. He signed this in the middle of the night in september of 1996, as the campaign for reelection unfold did in the middle of the night, so as not to attract attention to his signing off on this legislation. And yet nonetheless, he okayed the airing of radio ads in the south of that mentioned his support of the defense of act, tried to have it both ways on this one. In some respects. The crime legislation that was spearheaded and pushed and promoted by joe biden, then senator, was signed and approved in the Clinton Administration and has this partially targeted minorities, critics has led to mass incarration. And clintons lies under oath. During. During the emerging moments of the Clinton Lewinsky sex and lies scandal tt broke in 1998. His lies und oath about his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky led to his impeachment in 1998. And he later tried to characterize Monica Lewinsky as a stalker, as someone who came on to him. So i its safe to say that the nineties were defined by more than bill clinton and his presidency. Was it maybe the seinfeld decade . Was it the seinfeld decade . Is that the geist of the nineties . This was a popular sitcom starring the comedian jerry seinfeld. It aired on nbc for much of the decade and it has been criticized sometimes as being as having been a show about nothing. But some critics, some savvy critics have insisted otherwise that it was a show about everything that was a show about everything that seinfeld gave the american landscape scape a satire. Beth, every week skewering and poking at and taking on a range of social norms, conventions of absurdities of life. It was not a show about nothing. These critics say it was a show about everything. Everything ithemerican 1990s. And it led to the introduction of distinctive phrases that are with us in some respects to this day. Yada, yada,ada. No soup for you. If every instinct you ve is wrg, then the opposite would have to right. Arguments for the seinfeld decade. The nineties as the seinfeld decade. But of course, their arguments against that notion. In a way, it was a show about nothing. It was a show about nothing more than a few episodes were tedious, unfunny, hard to get through. And they didnt tell us. Many of these shows didnt tell us much about the 9090s. There was this a just show called the old man was loud and it was chaotic. Really had little to do with the american 1990s. It was also a male dominated program. Few minority characters made an appearance. One of the few who did was a lawyer. The character jackie chiles, who was based upon loosely based upon johnnie cochran, who was the lead defense lawyer in the o. J. Simpson. And it was usuallyretty selfaware when it was making its casual insults. There was anpisode called the beard, in which the elaine character tried to convert a gay man. There was a season final season episode called the puerto rican day parade, dismal episode in which kramer, the kramer chacter, won a Jerry Seinfelds buddys stomped on a puerto rican flag. So i think a powerful argument can be made that the seinfeld decade is not an appropriate way to characterize the nineties like iced. So is it the clueless decade . Is it the clueless decade . This, of course, is a term borrowed from the 1995 sleeper hit clueless. And the characterization of clueless decade suggests that america essentially went to sleep aftethe end of the cold war with the collapse of the soviet union in 1991, that america then took a holiday from history and really to confront or recognize the festering probm that were to blow up later in the next decade. Essentially. America kicked the can down the road. The problems were deferred and one moment at the end of the decade, the white uk fear the y2k scare reay does. In a way suggest a cluelessness ofmericans at the ti. In the late 1990s. This, of course, reflect the widespread concern that as the decade ended and a. 2000 began, compers would go haywire because they would fail to recognize athe new millennium and think instead it was the. 1900. It didnt happen, but there were ny precautions taken, many billions of dollars spent to prevent the specter of y2k. An example, perhaps, of nineties cluelessness. So what are some of the arguments against the notion that the nineties were the clueless decade . I argue that this is a present list approach tending to criticize americans of the 9090s for not knowing then what we ow now about terrorism or about technology or other topics. The fallacy of presentism, i think, lurks in the characterization of the nineties as clueless decade applying contemporarytandards, standards of our time to expectations, to people, to evts of the past, expecting them to know what we know and to embrace what we recognize as the standards and values of these days. And while one could argue that indeed u. S. Efforts ainst terrorism abroad were uneven at bestomegrown terrorism, Oklahoma City bombing,he atlanta olymps bombing for two cases, the unabomber is another homeown terrorism and received a lot more attention from authorities in t nineties than the specter of international terrorism. And im not so sure the us s completely clueless abroad either because it organized a coalitn in the early nineties to expel Saddam Hussein and his forces from kuwait, the neighboring country. They had invaded in august of 1990 and this used coalition was not successful. It was broad based. 39 countries were rruited to this coalition, including australia, britain, egypt, france, saudi arabia. It was an effort, an International Diplomatic effort that the United States spearhead added and successfully expelled the iraqis from kuwait. So i would argue that the united was not entirely clueless about some of the major events and, pressures and demands of the time. So, if not the clueless decade, maybe it was the best decade ever, the best decade ever. This was a characterization that appeared in a New York Times commentary published in 2015 that made this claim. The nineties were the best decade ever, and it noted that the nineties were a time of prosperous city in the United States. After a very sharp early in the decade recession. The American Economy grew by an average of 4 a year after 1992 to 1999. 4 a year is pretty strong economic growth. The Median Household Income in the country grew by 10 during the decade. Stocks quadrupled in. And the commentary noted that peace, prosperity and order and American Culture vibrant, healthy during. The 1990s, the best decade ever. Of course, theres some arguments to be raised against this. Its a tempting characterization, tempting to look back, steeped in nostalgia, to, say, the nineties were the best ever, the best decade ever. It is, though, a highly selective, a highly selective characterization, one that overlooks a good deal. The rwandan genocide is only mentioned parenthetically in this commentary in the New York Times. The crime bill of 1994, which has been since cited in mass incarceration in the country, was not mentioned at all in the commentary, nor were there, nor were the cases of domestic terrorism in new york, Oklahoma City and atlanta. All of which these cases of terrorism, all of which pose obvious challenges to the best ever arguments. So what are we to make of all this . Are the nineties best characterized as the internet decade . The decade of spectacle terrorism decade . The clinton dominated decade . The seinfeld decade, the clueless decade, the best decade ever, or Something Else . Maybe the dramatic. What do you think, folks . Go ahead, natasha. Im going to kind of personify the nineties a little bit and i would like to call it the teenage decade for decade, yes. And i think this is because it has the lot of a lot of characteristics of being a teenager. So you can have that kind of decade. Yes. I am personifying the decade as the teenage decade. There is that cluelessness, maybe the potential to look back with nostalgia, but also a lot of reckless decisions. You can see a lot of that in clinton, certainly with spectacle. I would say fits with drama. And i think also its important to remember that with the internet, there was a lot of opportunity for growth and a lot of things started in the nineties that would become very important later on, which is something that you would do as a person if you were growing. I think its a jumping off point for a lot of things that also has a lot of its its related to a lot of stuff, but its also selfcontained. And thats why i want to call it the teenage decade because you dont live as a teenager forever. You eventually grow out of that and mature and reach adulthood. So kind of an adolescent, so interesting here. Whats a better characterization in any of these . Sorry, i would. Well, maybe buy one of these. I would argue that the nineties are a distraction in decade, like a decade of distraction, commas, intersection between the decade of spectacle and the clueless decade analysis. I think that because of the way that media covered acts of terrorism, the trial by media, a frenzy of the nineties generally kind of took away our attention from the deeper root issues that were present in these spectacles. But because the sheer magnitude of the visual appeal, the drama, you know, the excitement and even the horror of seeing coverage of terrorist attacks like okc and the atlantis and the atlanta city bombing and little bombing. I think that because we were so drawn to these spectacles for our attention that we were then distracted from some of the real issues going on, especially in rwanda. And we tended to overlook a lot of the implications that these spectacles held. And i think, again, your title, the distraction decades traction, i think that without what would inevitably be the platform of social media to have Public Discourse to, i guess, incite further analysis into these cultural and socio political spectacles that we missed out on having that level of discourse and indepth thought into why these things were drawing our attention. And i think this was, you know, foreshadowing the now Public Discourse that we find on social media today. Whenever an event like the impeachment trials of trump happen. Like now we have a platform for us to all talk about it together, come to different conclusions, share and exchange information. But because of how new the internet was, we didnt have that yet. And so without having that exchange of information, we were very distracted by what was said in front of us. Got it. Thanks, austin. Then michael. Right behind you. So buying into one of these or even i was i was going to basically agree with the decade of spectacle. I think in general of these characterizations works on some level or another. But i think overall, the best way to describe the nineties would be the decade of spectacle it was the basically the birth of the american fascination with spectacle, with things like the o. J. Simpson trial, with things like the false accusation of Richard Jewell in the atlanta bombing. And specifically with, you know, the terror attacks at Columbine High School and the aftermath of which basically being broadcast to tvs around the around the country and the you do see spectacles in later decades. For instance, the terror attacks of 911, we we still have mass like to this day. But i do think that the nineties were basically the birthplace of that spectacle and the american fascination with spectacle. So i think that that is best way to describe the nineties y. Why would the decade of the nineties be the origin point for spectacle . I think that thats just when we had the the internet started to grow and it was based it was giving us more of a platform to to see things from around the country and around the globe. Previously, youd have to tune into your television and then, you know, about halfway through the nineties we started getting the advent of the internet and the information started to spread more quickly into more of the country and just all of the different sort of events of the nineties, all of the terror, all of the media spectacle, all all of the just all of the the crazy things that happened that people got to watch live on their tv, see unfold live on the internet, just sort of started that obsession with spectacle. Interesting. So about the counterargument that i raised that every decade has its spectacle. And since then theres even been more intense sense. My spectacle. Weve had two impeachment trials of a sitting president since clintons. My counterargument to that is that while it is true that every every decade has its spectacles we in the decades preceding the nineties, we would there was not nearly the sheer amount of spectacle in decades previously. You know, we would have like one, maybe two of these mass population wide events that would be viewed by everyone. Whereas in the nineties, you know, people would hear about the World Trade Center bombings and the Oklahoma City bombings and the o. J. Simpson trial. You know, we talked about in class about how every you know, not every single person, but a lot of people tuned into their televisions on the day that the o. J. Verdict was revealed. Yeah, thats true. Thats a good point. It really was a spectacle, a sort of National Vigil to await the verdicts in the o. J. Case, a case that had just obsessed the country in many ways. Thats true. And people were waiting by television sets, radio, not so much on the internet for the verdict. And yeah, thats a good point. And it was all captured by on video because the video record of the nineties is pretty impressive and i think that helps support your argument that we can, you know, go back and move forward to this. We can see it. See the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing or the World Trade Center attack in 1993. Okay, michael. Yeah. So i think a good way to describe would be the precursor or decade. And the i say that is i think you could point like a direct line from a bunch of things you talked about the semester two things that happened in the early 2000s. I think the internet what we talked about how like it made a lot of major like internet juggernauts were born in the nineties it was on internet explorer. You could keep going down the list, i think with terrorism. Right. We see these these isolated, separate terrorist attacks. And then that kind of boils up to 911. I mean, we had the war that i think also could be a contributor to 911 in that our war on terror as well. I think with the clinton example, too, you could talk about how the partizan divide that we see in the impeachment trial kind of is a precursor for the partizan divide we have in the 2000s. And currently now and then i think we see the one i have another example for getting it out. I think theres a lot more that indicate that there is like a lot of events that happened in the 2000 in the nineties like a, i think like school shootings. Columbine was kind of the precursor to the amount of Mass Shootings we see to this day as well. And i think the only counter argument to that would be that you can argue that any decade before Something Else could be the precursor decade, because thats how time works. But i feel like something about the nineties seems like you can make direct lines, things that currently happened a few a decade later. And so what other counterarguments might you make if you were going to self assess that argument, which i grant is pretty powerful. I think what counterarguments though could you come up with . Are you its the precursor decade. Maybe it is as you suggest. Every decade is kind of a precursor. The next one. And maybe just the other ones that weve listed so far that could be better or it could be comparable in terms of being accurate in attaining the the decade. I think the one that i mention is kind of like the the counterargument to my point, which is that, you know, theres cause and effect always. So yeah, i cant think of another one, but i feel like that would be a sizable one. But i think arguments is still pretty good though. So yeah, i agree. Duncan what are you going to endorse one of these or are you going to come up with as like i sticking to your own . I am not sure i could wholeheartedly endorse one of those. I think the closest would probably be the decade of spectacle similar to what people have been saying. And its interesting, i think that seinfeld kind of encapsulates that a little bit. I dont think i would call it the seinfeld decade, but i watching an interview recently with larry david, talking about how he and jerry, like came up with the idea for a show. They met, you know, in like a korean deli in new york to talk about, oh, whats the show going to be about . And they were pointing out like the idiosyncrasies about the deli. And like larry david is like, this is what the shows me about. Just like everyday life and there are so many people that tuned in and it kind of showed that there you can make a spectacle out of anything like humanity itself is like worth paying attention to. And i that kind of like paved the way for, you know, at least in like media, like in television, you see that that sort of thing. Theres a lot of different creative outlets for a lot of people. Their shows, a lot of shows about nothing. Now. And, you know, just because like you could call it, a decade of spectacle because of like these instances of like like the o. J. Or the impeachment trial that are like kind of like benchmarks for the nineties. But, you know, theres i think, frequency of spectacle kind of like was a precursor to, like you said, for, you know, i guess the 21st century. Interesting points you mentioned a moment ago, benchmark, could you use that term as a way to describe the zeitgeist of the nineties as the benchmark decade . Um, yeah, i think in a way like i think the bench mark decade sort of goes handinhand with the precursor decade because with like a spectacle, you know, its people recognize the key events as the like dominant forces that like make it like distinguish it as a decade of spectacle, but, you know, theres lots of other things that, you know, could be considered as like worth paying attention to. And like i think seinfeld points that out. Whether or not you think thats an accurate depiction of life in the nineties or not. But, um. Yeah, interesting. So do you think the benchmark decade is, is okay . I mean, its really not something you mentioned, but its close enough. Yeah, like i said, i dont think i could characterize it under like one term, but, you know, im indecisive person so that could be part of it. Okay, c. J. , i mean, going off of both duncans and michaels points, precursor, benchmark, i think the nineties can really be defined as the pivotal decade because. All of these things that we have talked about kind of laid the groundwork for the end of the millennium. You know, we were going into this this new century, this new time, y2k. People were scared of that. People had no idea what to expect. The internet was just starting, but it didnt explode until the 2000s. And even now, like were seeing new facets of the internet, you know, be explored and be discovered. So i feel like that is not a great representation of the nineties. You know, we see amazon be created, but like the way in which amazon has grown to, you know, almost a necessity, some in everyday life, like i feel like that is a much better categorization in a time culture now than it was then. But i think every aspect of this like pivotal nature, like seinfeld, i think is still regarded as like a fantastic show. And one of the best of the best. And i dont think i mean, i think this can be argued, but i dont think other shows have come close to kind of attempting to do what seinfeld. Seinfeld has done because, you know, i think it was just perfect for that time. And i think thats why its such a pivotal decade, because i think that was the time in which we were all turning as a society. And as a world because, i mean, had no idea what, you know, homegrown terrorism and worldly terrorism would grow into. You know, weve talked about 911 and like, i think all of these things were small precursors to more dramatic and large scale things that would come. And so i know weve had like arguments about it being the clueless decade and i dont know if that is the best representation, but i like this idea of pivotal because all of these things really like laid the groundwork for us to kind of explore the unknown world that was coming in the 2000 in such rapid and radical change that i think came from all of these things that weve talked about. Mean when you say pivotal, does that does that not all come down to the internet . Uh, the internet and popular consciousness pretty clearly in the nineties, yeah. And the web browsers were one of the factors that allowed that happen. And its, of course, the internet was not born fully formed. There was an adolescence, there was a growth period. And its still growing, as you suggested. But doesnt pivotal just come down ultimately to the internet, the introduction of the internet and the popular internet in the nineties are really large part. And i mean, again, i feel you you cannot remove the internet or, you know, social media platforms or anything digital from the lives of people. Now, because its so unbelievably ingrained into everything that we do. So it would be wrong to say that the internet wasnt in that pivotal change, but i think it was kind of just like a conglomeration of all of these things together. Is what really made kind of that transition into the year 2000. In the years after that is that i mean, yes, the internet, i think plays a really big part. But like in even like the early 2000s, even 2005, like people still were hesitant of the internet and werent making that switch. I mean, like, you know, we still had newspaper publications and things of that nature. Like everything wasnt online, even though we had kind of been working with the internet for so long. So i think it was it was a slow change, but i think why that pivot is so important because that was the decade in which we kind of all about faced to look at the future very interesting, pivotal decade benchmark decade, if we will, teenage decade, distraction decade, precursor decade, all all, very good. Let me offer my characterization and as a closing word here of our talk today, i argue that the nineties are best understood as the decade of origins and maybe kind of precursor in a way, but the decade of origins is its when our now began. Its when our future began the nineties. It was a time of watersheds, a time of points. It was the time of an emergence of a Divisive Political culture that continues to characterize american life, american political life. It was a time when impeachment was used for the first time in more than a century as a political weapon. As a political weapon, and has been used a couple of times since. Also, a preoccupation with terrorism. Some can be traced to the nineties, the origins of a culture of fear in the United States is a nineties artifact. It also the nineties represent it. Given the rise of the internet, the beginnings, the early days of a sea change in the news medias business model, especially for newspapers going from an advertising based revenue model to a subscription based a digital subscription based model that has led to a less temperate, less evenhanded, less impartial way of covering the news. Indeed, it has led to the rise of narrative driven journalism. This didnt happen in the nineties. It didnt happen all at once, but began in the the sea change, in the news media, as business model, the trial of the century in 1995, not only was a national obsessio it introduced into popular consciousness the value of and the wonder even of forensic dna. Dna evidence was introduced at the o. J. Trial, but had been poorly collected, poorly processed, poorly evaluated by authorities in los angeles. And it was not the way in which o. J. Simpson was convicted. In fact, he was not convicted at the trial. In 1995. But forens dna became a popular element in american life. It signaled the anticipated the spinoff of all kinds of Television Shows based on the use of forensic dna evidence, the csi franchise crime scene investigation, of which there have been many versions can be traced to this interest and preoccupation. If you will, with dna, forensic dna. And also it was the rise of the internet, the popular internet guide going in the nineties. Again, it wasnt fully formed at birth, but it clearly contributes to the decade of origins, the decade of origins. Were almost out of time, folks, and as we wrap up, allow me to do so. On a personal note, this is not only the last lecture of the semester, its the last lecture of my academic career. After 26 years on the American University faculty and 20 plus years in the news business, as journalist before then i will be wrapping up by the end of december, by the end of the academic year. Im going sabbatical leave and fall semester 2023 and then formally to be retired at the end of the year. Its been a good run for me at American University. 26 years on, the faculty, you have taught 20 different courses, including 1990s. Ive written seven solo authored books, ive won awards such as the faculty member of the year award given by the student government. So it has been a good run, but its time and you got to recognize when that time comes, its a for me and i want to thank you very much for your contributions to this class this semester. Our discussion today, i think, indicates the vibrant nature of our collaboration and our discussions together. So folks with that, we stand adjourned