RateItAll: The Opinion Network

this decade is full of rap and hip-hop, its awful.
all you hear every day is wank music.

The 2000's are going okay. They're not really over but I'll give em a 3 and a 4 if Dick Clark can make it to 2010. The 2000's kind of feel like the 1980's to me, which is good and bad. I prefer the 90's though. :)

So far, the 00s' have not been so bad. Granted, parts of Africa are reverting to the stone age, Latin America is reverting to its traditional political norms (periodic cycling between anti-American populism and repressive autocracy), the Iraqis are trying to prove Schopenhauer correct ('The world is hell, and men are both the devils and the damned') and the Middle-East is preparing for World War III (SunnisvsShiitesvsKurdsvsTurksvsPersiansvsJewsvsAnyForeignPowersDumbEnoughToGetInvolved).

The other 2/3rds of the world has done quite well though. Europe's welfare states are crumbling under the impact of immigration, over-regulation and competition, but they still have the highest standards of living in the world, outside North America. America is shedding blue-collar jobs, but most people still enjoy decently paid work, low inflation, social stability, and speculative booms in housing, stocks, and debt. China and India have the highest rates of growth they've seen in the past 2000 years.

Obviously, this will not last forever. It is impossible to predict the future, but the trends are clear. Globalisation will not end, but it will almost certainly subside as high energy prices and protectionism take effect. India will become more anarchial, China more tyrannical. The US will do badly, but better than most of the rest of the world, as it will still have the world's largest industrial base, as well its largest resource base, outside Russia. The political scene will be very interesting, as Globalists, Liberals and Paleo-Conservatives (and hybrids of all three) compete for the levers of power. Failing states will multiply. OPEC countries that can maintain order will become very, very wealthy. So will capital-flight enclaves like Singapore, Dubai, Switzerland, London and Miami. The rest of the world will become poorer. By 2010, the first half of the decade will look like a golden age. Unless you're an oil sheik or the CEO of ExonMobil, you will probably look back on the 00s as the worst decade since the 1970s, maybe even the 1930s.

Update 9/13: One negative aspect of the 00s I negected to address is the dramatic decline in creativity. America has never been a great place for high culture, but we've always had a genius for middle-brow culture: pop music, movies, popular fiction, even television (though TV is, and always has been, mostly crap). Yet the 00s have seen a dramatic fall in quality in just about every field noted above: pop music is dominated by cRap; 'new' movies all seem to be based on old TV shows, comic books...and remakes of old movies; television is dominated by reality TV; there are 500 channels now and none of them
is worth watching.

High culture has become a bad joke. Visual art is at its lowest ebb since the dark ages; architecture has improved slightly, but still excels at making ultra-expensive, ultra-ugly buildings in the tradition of Gropius and Le Corbusier; the average living novelist anyone can name is around 85 years old; the average living poet anyone can name died 10 years ago. Europe and Japan are even worse than the US (where bad art is at least not subsidized at taxpayer expense) while the rest of the world is even worse then them, with a few notable exceptions (music in Africa, art and literature in India). I have no idea what the reasons for this are (there are more artists around than probably any time in human history, and more money going towards the arts than ever); but the 00s are more barren in creativity than any decade of the 20th century.

It's been a memorable decade on several levels - personal, political, economical, social and technological - unfortunately, most of the memorable stuff seems to stem from horrific events which have occured throughout the decade. 2000 had a doomsday cloud hovering over it with the Y2K bug; luckily that was a triumph. 2001 had the September 11 attacks. 2002 had the Bali Bombings, which killed many of my countrymen. 2003 marked the beginning of the pointless (and seemingly neverending) Iraq war. 2004 had the Tsunami and Mark Latham (wacko Aussie politician). 2005 brought Hurricane Katrina and the surrender of the Ashes to our old rivals England. 2006 - well anything can happen; it has certainly been a turbulent year for me so far, which is why I have only occassionally appeared on this site to give opinions. The only things to stem out of this decade was a triumph against the Taliban, along with the fact that 2006 has brought no large-scale disaster as of yet (as far as I can tell).

I still remember the 1980s and 1990s. Such hope and optimism. During the 1980s with Reagan's leadership the Cold War was ending and everyone just felt like things were getting better. In the 1990s with Clinton's leadership the US economy boomed and E. Asia joined the global marketplace.

This decade is a disaster. We have no leadership to look up to in this country anymore, and the once in a generation opportunity after 9/11 to do something special was blown by our President in Iraq.

My comment is for the Generation of the 2000's which is what tells me to give the 2000's decade four stars(I am not sure what the new generation is called..I think they have been called the I Generation..but like I said I am not sure..I suppose that I could find that info on Wikipedia.com). As a high school councelor I see the new generation well. Most of you are kids of the baby bommer generation. And most of you have been held blasted down and treated unfairly and have been lied to. Your generation has been told not to do drugs even though the people around you may be doing them. You have been told not to have sex before becoming a Husband or a Wife even though the people around you may not be setting the example. And when you did want to get engaged and say your wedding vows to someone you may love you still have been told..you are to young(aka..too much on a lower level)to take the next step. Your Generation has been pushed back from reaching adulthood when you look at the bottom layer of the bottom level of it all. And what hurts me is that your generation is so bogged down that you don't notice or say anything...but you will see it later on but by then your youth will be gone and it will be to late to say anything about the pain your feeling. But you don't have to let it get to you and let it keep you down. There are many steps you can take. Here are some..ask questions..that is a good way to 1 up in this life. And also think deeply into what people say and you might begin to understand the core of what other people mean when they talk...a good time to do this is during summer break or when on you are in college and on you own. Don't be so moldable. Try to have your own view on a certain topic(Rate it All can help you with that) and no matter how hard they may try don't let people rip you from what you belive in. Speak Out about what you belive in(as the generations before yours did) and take pride in what you say. Your Generation is the Next Generation. Most of the ones of your generation are teens(14-17) or adults(18-22)then it is time you start thinking like it..why wait until you are 29 or older? Grow now. And don't let the denture & depends generation push you back down. Update: Many people on Rate it all are upset about what I have said in my comment..but quess what I DON'T CARE! And I don't care if I worry the largest generation there is(the boomers)THEY NEED IT(read these words) I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THEM..AND I NEVER WILL HA! Due to all the fighting that is going on this page I will no longer waste my time looking at it(the hard feelings is nothing but a bunch of trash). These words are a part of my opinion..LIVE WITH IT!

Nice rant, but you are marginally off topic and you spelled your job title wrong. Back to the subject, this decade holds incredible promise but has thus far manifested itself through the horrors that it has fielded and will be defined by 9/11, killer tsunamis, and nasty hurricanes. Fun. UPDATE: So somebody else is here to solve the ills of the world, and once again nothing is more ill in this world than the numbah. First I shall take a sidebar for the new people here. My "title" is numbah16tdhaha and it means that when Jake Plummer throws a TD I laugh like Ed from the Lion King. "Title" is a stretch, but I kinda like the concept. On to "Rant." When people get off topic, I tend to act like a jackass, and there was certainly some deviance from the topic. Its "what do you think of the decade" not "what do think of today's youth." So, once again, I'm a jackass but a correct jackass, which is everything the Marines taught me to be. (all numbah's past NCOs must be proud)

Wow, lots of pessimism out there. You could consider the 2000s to be the morning after the 90's party. We're left cleaning up the mess we made in the past decade. Sure it's not appealing, but we gotta do it. I'm glad Bush is in the oval office and not some mindless douchebag like crybaby Al Gore and Eqivocator John Kerry. Bush scored a 1206 on his SAT, which is higher than both Kerry and Clinton. (You can see his official Yale transcript posted online). But going back to the topic, the 2000's are thusfar marked with awesome technology, return to tradition, and respect for the past and future. Our whole modern society has been based on the 80's and still holds true today.

Lets see.... Gas has gone up astronomically, the middle class are working their asses off for less money while the wealthy are living in the most prosperous of times, real estate everywhere has inflated beyond belief, a government full of hypocritical fundamentalist crooks, this country has become alienated from the rest of the world and doing a great job at making new enemies while it sells itself out, America is getting uglier with cookie cutter sprawl where the American dream had been subjected down to a condo with an interstate in your back yard surrounded by strip malls and fast food, pop culture now will hardly be remeniced in the future... but hey we're still surviving, I still got my friends, family, and all the people I love and Boston got its glory days back in the sports world. Definately looking forward to the next election and perhaps putting a little more substance back in to our culture.

I have to give the 2000's 5 stars, because I'm living through it and I'm absolutely having a great time. I'm not going to get pessimistic about things that don't effect me. There are problems in this country and around the world, but there have always been problems. September 11th has been the defining moment of this decade so far, but although it was a tragic event, I think it has made me more proud to be a citizen of the United States. I know that a lot of people feel that the country is more divided, and that our country is heading in the wrong direction, but I don't share those sentiments. I am happy with where our country is right now, and think the 2000's have been great so far.

Err. . .economy blows. The middle class can't afford health care. Television is full of worthless reality shows. Music sucks. People are as stupid, fat, and illiterate as ever. And fundementalists (everywhere) now have a false and inflated sense of their influence and power. I'll bide my time in the DC suburbs while this entire worthless decade blows over. . .oh, and it's no longer fun to fly.

Pros- Computers, internet, technology, hdtv, more tv channels, easier to communicate e-mails cell phones etc., video games, in St. Louis where I live it seems to be 5 statrs for the area, the Rams won the superbowl, Cardinals made it to the world series they did not in the 1990''s, it was all Yankees, Stars, Broncos and all of those spoiled teams, the city is turning around from a famous shrinktown we are actually growing and there is more to do and St. Louis is nicer and safer, Chicago seems the same as the 1990's, To the cons now, well Texas has gotten junky, Ive only breen to Houston, Galveston, and Dallas, both Dallas and Houston have the worlds worst urban sprawl, I think Dallas is worst, Houston has been polluted and white collar crimanals, and industrial, with a strip mall off every exit with a handfull of fast food restaurants, have not been much else, New York is probably different after 9/11, Katrina, September 11th, more hurricans, the war in Iraq, Bush, political corruptions, republicans in office, yeah the rise of fundementalism is offensive, then some people i mean teenagers these days are snobby, not all, some are balanced, it's just modern era probably started in the 80's o 90's, I give it threee stars good and bad is certainly going on, I am sure St. Louis will be better in 2009 and in 2006 there will be more democrats in office and 2009 a good president, as far as the teenage culture it will get worse or stay the same I think, Texas and Louisiana might be better once they get the corrupt people out of office

the 2000s is a good decade because of all the technology its f***in sick how we have all these nice ass game systems and weird lookin computers. the only bad things about this decade is bush this dumbass war and crime is getting worse with all these terrosist. but despite all that this is the best decade so far well technology wise anyway.

This decade is a f***ing JOKE!!!!Total CCCCRRRRRAAAAAAAAPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!EVERYONE on December 31,1999 did ALL that celebrating for NOTHING!!!It was a WASTE of a New Years Eve!!!!This are all the things that SUCK about this decade:SpongeBob,Zim,9/11,X-tina Aguilera,Nickelodeon,gayness,porn,tv,movies,Bush,and MORE!!!!It can't STAND it!!!!!!!I wanna PUKE!!!!!!S***!!!!!!I'm TIRED of this!!!!

90'S COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!! someday there'll invent a time machiene and ill be one of the first to get OUT OF HERE!

90'S COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!! someday there'll invent a time machiene and ill be one of the first to get OUT OF HERE!

Pros-challenge reality shows like survivor and fear factor, csi, a whole army of bubblegum singers like britney spears, christina aguilera, n' sync, ect., 80s toys making a comeback, cons-bush, war in iraq, 911 attack, sucky japanese-based action figures, hurricane katrina, a heavy increase in violent crimes against children and women killing men, some stupid reality shows such as apprentice and for love or for money.

one word for the 2000s decade.....GREED! just look at how much has changed so far since the decade before this one. I was reading an article in The Greenville News and it really brought it to my attention. It is still too soon to tell if it is a 1 star or 5 star rating so I gave it a 3.

Not one of my favorite decades at all .

Pros-reality shows like survivor and bachelor, csi, a whole army of bubblegum singers like britney spears, christina aguilera, n' sync, ect., 80s toys making a comeback, cons-bush, war in iraq, 911 attack, sucky japanese-based action figures. All those things are cons. I think I should add some more though. *Emo *The bastardization of puck rock with bands like Blink182, Sum41, Green Day, Simple PLan, Avril Lavinge, etc. Sid Vicious, Johnny, Joey, and Dee-Dee Ramone, as well as all the other REAL dead punks of the 70's and 80's are flopping around in their graves. *Paying $50+ for worn out designer jeans with holes in 'em. (A nasty 80's throwback.) *Gaudy big-ass SUV's *Ugly boxy cars. (Another 80's throwback) *The return of Micheal Jackson (for a while durring the mid-late 90's I actually thought to myself Yup, it's safe to say we're never gonna hear from that perv-o ever again!) *A crappy president who somehow got elected TWICE! (80's throwback) *Lame cartoons. Whatever happened to Rocco's Modern LIfe, The Angry Beavers, Ninja Turtles (Not the lame recycled version)? I'm sic *The movie industry has run out of fresh ideas, so they just recycle old movies and TV shows. *MTV dosn't play music anymore. I could go on forever. But my point is, this decade is just the 80's all over again, at least the crap stuff. Some things that don't suck: *The internet, allowing people like me the oppertunity to anonomously look at boobies while bitching and complaining about things in forums all day. *Kick Ass Bands like the White Stripes, The Strokes, The Vines, The HIves, Franz Ferdinand,The Dandy Warhols, The Mooney Suzuki, and many others that are saving rock and roll. Well that's enough outta me.

Pros-reality shows like survivor and bachelor, csi, a whole army of bubblegum singers like britney spears, christina aguilera, n' sync, ect., 80s toys making a comeback, cons-bush, war in iraq, 911 attack, sucky japanese-based action figures. All those things are cons. I think I should add some more though. *Emo *The bastardization of puck rock with bands like Blink182, Sum41, Green Day, Simple PLan, Avril Lavinge, etc. Sid Vicious, Johnny, Joey, and Dee-Dee Ramone, as well as all the other REAL dead punks of the 70's and 80's are flopping around in their graves. *Paying $50+ for worn out designer jeans with holes in 'em. (A nasty 80's throwback.) *Gaudy big-ass SUV's *Ugly boxy cars. (Another 80's throwback) *The return of Micheal Jackson (for a while durring the mid-late 90's I actually thought to myself Yup, it's safe to say we're never gonna hear from that perv-o ever again!) *A crappy president who somehow got elected TWICE! (80's throwback) *Lame cartoons. Whatever happened to Rocco's Modern LIfe, The Angry Beavers, Ninja Turtles (Not the lame recycled version)? I'm sic *The movie industry has run out of fresh ideas, so they just recycle old movies and TV shows. *MTV dosn't play music anymore. I could go on forever. But my point is, this decade is just the 80's all over again, at least the crap stuff. Some things that don't suck: *The internet, allowing people like me the oppertunity to anonomously look at boobies while bitching and complaining about things in forums all day. *Kick Ass Bands like the White Stripes, The Strokes, The Vines, The HIves, Franz Ferdinand,The Dandy Warhols, The Mooney Suzuki, and many others that are saving rock and roll. Well that's enough outta me.

So far they're pretty crappy. The end of the cultural 90's came exactly on morning of Sept 11, 2001. After a decade of blissfull naivety that the breakup of the USSR meant the end to a global threat, reality came crashing down upon us like two gargantuan towers. Soon, 1990's attitudes about openness, culture and acceptance were violently catapulted back to the paranoid, suspicios, and secretive attitudes of the cold war era. The evil eye once cast upon Communism and Eastern Europe, shifted to Islam and the Middle East. The Western world had a new universal enemy, and due to the fact they had gone for nearly 10 years without one, war immediately followed. Seems the 90's were just a short vacation from the tension of a constant, looming, threat. I guess we'll just have to see how the second half of this decade plays out. Seems pretty grim so far.

I really don't like this decade. The last good year was in 2000. But ever since, it feels like the 1980's all over again. My life's in limbo. Nothing's gone my way. My sports teams suck, I'm still in rehab, Bush is still in power, the economy is in a recession, I'm getting tax breaks when I don't NEED tax breaks, conservatives are ruining the country, reality TV bites, my cat Egan doesn't want anything to do with me anymore, we're still in a war, the country is still divided, etc. It's driving me crazy.

I've only been around for 3 previous decades. It seems like the world has become too commercial, too fast and everyone continues to become more and more greedy. The technology is great in a lot of ways but extremely damaging in so many other ways.

this decade (after january 2001 with the swearing in of the worst president this country has ever had) has been really bad so far. The show revelations on NBC is starting to almost seam like reality, we are getting worse and worse. We are now only 2 months away from being exactly half way thru this decade, the first half has sucked, and i doubt the second half will be any better, except maybe for 2009, when we will hopefully be swearing in a GOOD president. Livng in this decade now, makes me wish i was born in the 1800's so that i wouldn't live to see this day in age.

Glad to see so many people bashing Bush. Not the greatest deacade so far, but if a draft comes, perhaps I will enjoy it more up in Canada.

How come some of you are picking on bush? What's up with that. He goes through alot to keep us safe. So far it's going fine.

This decade sucked ass. Thanks a lot, Bush.

It f***ing sucks so far!!!!!!!

It's hard to comment on a decade that's not over yet.

This decade, sucks, sucks, sucks! I knew somebody who committed suicide No-Thanks to Bush and how everything went in 2003. I Hate him!!!

Bush really screws everything up. He will go down as our worst president ever.

I hope it gets better after Bush.

Just like the 90's except everyone's scared and the stock market's much lower.

Well. . .it is early yet. . .but didn't the Jetson's cartoon tell us we were supposed to have flying cars by now?

this decade sucks, every ones doing doing everything from the past, but technology stuffed.

this is the most frightening decade in a long time personally for me its been better than the nineties i grew up and stuff but this nation is under fire and will be judged by God soon i believe and eric the fedealist is talking about the euro and all if you read the bible it says about the end times and it talks about a one world nation and all. We might be getting closer to when Christ comes back for his own and judges the world and then there will be a new heaven and earth. Maybe i should excited but anyways Bush is doing a great job hes not perfect but who is at least he does things with heart and conviction

If I should judge the 21st century based on USA, I would undoubtly be forced to give it only one star (despite some great movies and well-deserved Oscar winners ;)), but after all the 21st century has been more than Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush and 11th of September. For a European, what has happened in Europe and within the European Union has been of much stronger imporantance than Bush, the Iraq war and the Bush government's USA against 'the rest' policies. In Europe we've started to use the Euro, the most successful currency in the history of humanity, and we're just months ahead of a historic enlargement into ten more EU countries, mainly from Eastern Europe. Soon we'll have a European constitution, a common president elected by the people of all EU nations, we'll have a common foreign policy, more countries will start using the Euro and EU will expand their borders furthermore into Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans, Turkey etcetera. A very prosperous vision which almost could lead me to give this decade five stars, but then something suddenly hits me, reminding me of the USA of today...Bush that is. How on earth could you even consider voting for a person that only wants to destroy the whole world. And how could that NOT affect USA in a negative way as well??

We're going to kick Saddam's ass!

As we barrel towards unfettered capitalism's end, be it by ruin or rebirth, more people are realizing that something is wrong and needs to be fixed SOON. But will the Ishmaelians and Cultural Creatives and others be enough?

It's too early to judge this decade, but so far its been a very turbulent one, exactly the opposite of the 1990's. It could have been worse, what if Y2K (remember that?) had materialized into something? I guess all of those fatalists feel pretty stupid right now after they stocked their bunkers with bottled water and spam! We had a president selected with the help of the supreme court for the first time ever. There have been close elections before, but George W. Bush's election in Nov. 2000 (by 537 votes in Florida) was indeed pushing it. Nonetheless, I think we got a good deal in that regard, Bush has been a good leader, he understands his place in history. On the foreign arena, we are facing a full fledged war on terrorism, an enemy which many times has an invisible face. We are not fighting countries (with the exception of Iraq), we are fighting private entities that have shown the ability to attack the United States in its homeland. This is a threat that will be rolled back eventually, but it's going to take a while. Biological, chemical and nuclear threats are still issues that need to be dealt with much like during the cold war, the only thing now is that the enemy is different. No it is not Islam, but it is groups like Al-Queda and now Hamas who are the threat. The world is changing rapidly. Wonderful technologies like the internet and now wireless communication are changing the way we communicate with one another. So it's not all bad. The economy of the '90's simply couldn't continue into this decade, but considering the international situation, it is a miracle that our economy is still as strong as it is today. Granted there are some signs that America may be weakening, being that Europe might be rising to challenge America's hegemony. Their new currency the Euro is gaining strength against the dollar as of this writing. In the long term this may be a problem, but for now the economy is fairly strong except the stock market of course. It just seems that after the '90's we are going through kind of a hangover now. We'll be back, its just that certain events in the recent past has caused us to loose our sense of invulnerability. The one good thing I think that came out of 9/11/2001 was the sense of unity we had as Americans. It felt good to see Americans really caring about their country and each other; there was a great sense of community. That was something that hadn't been seen in a long time. Overall, just remember it can always be worse.

In most ways it doesn't seem to have as much distinctness as other decades, but it gets 4 stars for George W. and the removal of Saddam.

This decade sucks.

It's early yet. At this moment things could be a lot better. This decade thus far has been pretty violent, hopefully things will level off but only time will tell. I'll amend this review in 7 years, if I am still here.

It doesn't look like this decade's starting off too well, but we're only in the third year so far. So far, this seems to be a decade full of fighting and hatred. Of course, that can be said of any decade, certainly, it's just that this decade just looks especially grim so far. Hopefully, things'll start looking up.

I think that we have come into this new decade expecting too much. Who can blame us though? After such prospeirty through the 90s, we can only expect more, right? This reminds me a bit of the 20s and the 30s. The United States saw great peace and prosperity, both cultural and economic during the 20s, and then in the 30s, everything went downhill. I see the same thing happening now, indeed both economically, politically and culturally. Crime is getting worse and worse, and terrorism is running full-fledged in this world that we live in. Already we've suffered a tagic loss with 9/11, and some strange diseases are floating their way over here. We're not off to a very good start.