'Millennial Tension'

[version]

I've come across the phrase a few times and don't fully understand it. What was it? Why were people tense? Why did Tricky reference it? Why did the person below think the arrival of the millennium was a blow to Ballard?

Personally, i think he's found himself stunned by the Millenium - it had been hanging around the corners of his pre 2000 work and when it came it was like Nick Cave finally finding redemption or William Burroughs faced with the enormity of AIDS as a non-symbolic sex virus; "where do we go now? We've spent our souls on documenting unseen horrors, millenial tensions etc and we've dragged ourselves beyond the pale and now...now... THIS.

The advent of the Millenium must have left Ballard feeling like Orwell in 1983 (no, not dead) - and, while I think he's easily talented enough to find a new group of synapses to twitch, it'll be a while yet before he's fully recovered.

I remember talk of the millennium bug, but there's clearly more to it than that.

 

[pattycakes_]

Imo, as the utopian 90s passed its midpoint and the millennial buzz started to build, the world was moving in a positive direction and there were expectations for bigger and better changes in society. We were stepping into the future. It was the year 2000! (so sci-fi!) But as the decade's end drew closer, the 1st half's high began coming down, the hype started to fade and a sense of anti-climax was sneaking into our collective subconscious. Something didn't sit right. In a way, it's a bit like Curtis talking about how revolutions never work out in the long run because people don't have a vision of what to do once it actually happens. I think we were all drunk off of the hype but had no plan of action. It was just assumed that things were going to be better. Maybe deep down we already knew. Politicians had huge chunks of the country in plastic rapture, coasting on past glories. Look at the damp squib that was the dome. They had to do something but they had nothing to say. Britain was an empty shell. Bottomed out. The arse end of a 3-day Gallagher coke binge in a Primrose Hill townhouse. Dazed and confused. Once 2k actually passed and it became clear that nothing was going to change I think we suffered some kind of mass deflation that we've never quite recovered from. Humor me here, but imo the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics was the crowning expression of this hollowing out process. It'd had over a decade to fester by this point and the denial and delusion were fucking visceral.

 

[version]

It's not as though people felt a switch was going to be flicked and a utopia would burst forth though, was it? Also, I took 'tension' to be a negative, that we were bracing for catastrophe.

 

[version]

Some contemporary reportage:

The odd thing is that amid all this celebration or talk of it anyway people tend to react with a shiver at the thought of a new millennium. Some are describing it as a new form of PMT - Pre Millennial Tension. Several millenniums' worth of apocalyptic "prophecies" probably haven't helped, in particular the sort featured on a 1980s Japanese television documentary, in which "two eminent authorities" as described in A.T. Mann's Millennium Prophecies concluded independently that we would all be wiped off the face of the Earth in 1999.

The man who pioneered Japan's rocket technology, Prof Hideo Itokawa, calculated that on August 18th, 1999, the Sun and the planets would take up the shape of a cross. This, he opined, would coincide with the destruction of human society on Earth, caused by wars over energy and food. And all before the new millennium emits a whimper.

In any event, the notion or desirability of a spiritual New Age is perfectly in keeping with the aspirations of many leaders and commentators, past and present. In fact, the last decade of most centuries have prompted a sort of prophetic, apocalyptic millennial surge, says Prof Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford. It was true of Ireland in the 1790s remember 1798. And it was certainly true of the 1890s when there was a huge surge of prophetic and millennial activity, partly prompted, says Prof Foster (whose first volume on WB. Yeats - A Lid will be published in March), by the Theosophical Movement. They, bless them, had forecast a shift from the age of materialism to spiritualism after 1896. This coincided with the great Celtic boom and the firm belief shared by Yeats, A.E. and Maud Gonne among others that by the end of the century, the Celtic nations would usher in a new age, both spiritual and political.

Pre-Millennium Tension

ONLY three years to go and does anyone care? Anyway, what's in a date? Not a lot, if you take the long term view

www.irishtimes.com

 

[pattycakes_]

It's not as though people felt a switch was going to be flicked and a utopia would burst forth though, was it?

Not exactly, but the 1st half of the 90s was this breakout moment where hope and positivity were in full momentum for the first time in ages - as reflected in the music etc. But then you get to like 96/97 and just for one eg Massive Attack are bringing out Mezzanine which is total cocaine paranoia, and the cracks are beginning to show. But at the same time, you had the corporate and political world building up the hype like we're all supposed to get excited and throw street parties n shit. More good times to come! And it was exciting to some degree, being something that most generations will never experience. Symbolically it was a big thing, even if you're not religious or whatever.

There were a bunch of conflicting energies flying around and yeah, ofc some of them were:

Also, I took 'tension' to be a negative, that we were bracing for catastrophe.

The cataclysm predictions are gonna happen around that type of thing. But idk if that's what Tricky was getting at. I think he was talking more about social stuff. Long time since I actually listened to the album. Maybe there's some clues in the lyrics. There was so much coke going around back then though. The paranoia must have been through the roof.

 

[pattycakes_]

Tech was blowing up. Dot com boom. A lot of people were loving it, but then others were justifiably wary

 

[version]

There's a funny Hitchens piece on the subject,



-- Pre-Millennial Syndrome, Christopher Hitchens (1996)

 

[WashYourHands]

Imo, as the utopian 90s passed its midpoint and the millennial buzz started to build, the world was moving in a positive direction and there were expectations for bigger and better changes in society. We were stepping into the future. It was the year 2000! (so sci-fi!) But as the decade's end drew closer, the 1st half's high began coming down, the hype started to fade and a sense of anti-climax was sneaking into our collective subconscious. Something didn't sit right. In a way, it's a bit like Curtis talking about how revolutions never work out in the long run because people don't have a vision of what to do once it actually happens. I think we were all drunk off of the hype but had no plan of action. It was just assumed that things were going to be better. Maybe deep down we already knew. Politicians had huge chunks of the country in plastic rapture, coasting on past glories. Look at the damp squib that was the dome. They had to do something but they had nothing to say. Britain was an empty shell. Bottomed out. The arse end of a 3-day Gallagher coke binge in a Primrose Hill townhouse. Dazed and confused. Once 2k actually passed and it became clear that nothing was going to change I think we suffered some kind of mass deflation that we've never quite recovered from. Humor me here, but imo the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics was the crowning expression of this hollowing out process. It'd had over a decade to fester by this point and the denial and delusion were fucking visceral.

 

[version]

It was a feature in Hollywood too. You had Arnie attempting to prevent Satan bringing about the "end of days" and Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days bundling all sorts of things together on NYE 1999.

There was also that X-Files related show called Millennium about a shadowy group trying to end the world.

 

[shakahislop]

robbie williams willing on the apocalypse

 

[shakahislop]

will smith claiming the millenium as being something to do with him, which seems farfetched

 

[maxi]

Good thread, I didn't see it before. I've been thinking about this a bit this week, having listened to a bunch of late 90s drum & bass which gets darker and darker approaching the millennium. This one almost sounds like gothic rock or metal to me. and it's called 'omen'

Just realised pattycakes touched on this at the beginning, but I was gonna say something about much of the pop culture stuff in this realm isn't just about pessimism or a dark vision generally, but is specifically in a sci-fi context. The Matrix, Terminator 2, Strange Days, Dark City, Existenz, .

I think at least part of it is just due to the year '2000'. Just the look of the number itself. It's easy to take for granted and seems laughable now but it actually must have been quite scary to see in the late 90s. It gives a vague feeling of, 'this is a whole new millennium now, it will have to be different, something's gonna change and it'll be bad'

This is also within the context of things not actually being that bad. Maybe the reason it came out in rave music and through a fun sci-fi lens is because people were basically having quite a good time. So I'd wonder how much genuine conscious dread there was. But I also think it might have come from a suppressed knowingness that there was trouble ahead. Maybe even due to a western sense of guilt about how we had it so much better than the rest of the world - with things like the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides in the news.

 

[maxi]

Arnold Schwarzenegger is also a big part of it for some reason

 

[version]

Finally watched Pi last night and that had it in spades.

 

[version]

One of the things I find exciting about this stuff is the plunge into the future reactivating all these ancient texts and prophecies and simultaneously sending people hurtling into the past. Everything contracts to this single point of the new millennium and we end up on one of those planes of consistency Vim and I were discussing. Suddenly Biblical prophecy's rubbing shoulders with mobile phones and the internet.