Whatchamacolumn: Looking backward is necessary for looking forward

Another year gone, another to come.

It’s been the same for 2,070 years of the Julian Calendar, 45 B.C. to 1582, and Gregorian Calendar ever since. And while the Gregorian is off by about 43 minutes every century, global climate change dwarfs any concerns about that tiny movement of the seasons.

We can’t really assess change by the year, but we provide some of the background evidence in our annual Year in Review. It’s our small corner of a global human predisposition to look back with wonder and forward with anticipation. And if history should assess 2024 as a year of significant change, it’s left to 2025 and beyond to determine just how deep those changes run.

History.com reminds us that a century ago, “The Roaring Twenties was a period in American history of dramatic social, economic and political change … The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929 … This economic engine swept many Americans into an affluent ‘consumer culture’ … (though many) were uncomfortable with this racy urban lifestyle, and the decade of Prohibition brought more conflict than celebration … (then) the excesses of the Roaring Twenties came crashing down as the economy tanked at the decade’s end.”

Whatchamacolumn

Jeb Bladine is president and publisher of the News-Register.

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In the 2020s, the most noteworthy changes seem connected to climate risk awareness and response, Artificial Intelligence (AI), political polarization and resulting sociocultural transformations.

Two-thirds of our state populations favored Donald Trump in November, ushering in an historic change of American governance. Locally, election results suggest that changes are coming in city and county government, while statewide, Oregonians returned a progressive Legislature to Salem.

Locally, and everywhere, AI is curating massive information into bite-size presentations that will only be as accurate as the selected, often unnamed, sources.

For a world population, the United Nations has declared climate change “the single biggest health threat facing humanity,” citing extreme weather events, food and water system disruption, mental health, air pollution, disease, and undermined access to health care and social support.

That’s more than a little depressing. But on the other hand, new technologies are providing positive advancements in access to information, global food production, personal entertainment, life-saving medicine and tools for daily living. If only we can avoid creating generations of children with digital absorption syndrome.

As happens every year at this time, change is in the air — sometimes bolstered by personal resolutions with specific goals, sometimes dashed by lack of accountability with predictable obstacles. Here’s wishing good cheer and great successes for 2025, with few noteworthy New Year’s quotes:

Benjamin Franklin: “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”

Albert Einstein: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

Buddha: “No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.”

Robin Sharma: “Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.”

Charlie Brown: “You know how I always dread the whole year? Well, this time I’m only going to dread one day at a time.”

Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.