Why 2015 Won't Suck
December 30, 2014 5:02 AM Subscribe
Matter's list of 39 bit-sized items of texts and graphics why 2015 won't suck includes such gems as an comic "On Optimisim" and other reasons "why 2015 will be less terrible than 2014, which was garbage."
Perhaps being called "Winnie", whether Churchill or the Pooh, makes you an optimist. It's got to be more encouraging than "Losie".
posted by Segundus at 5:34 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 5:34 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
Maybe it's just the pessimist in me talking, but I couldn't help reading those headlines with the phrase "if you're rich enough" following each one.
posted by Curious Artificer at 5:39 AM on December 30, 2014 [14 favorites]
posted by Curious Artificer at 5:39 AM on December 30, 2014 [14 favorites]
Optimism is good. Essential. Need the light to balance against the relentless gloom. I'm doing some of 2 (Detroit is great), and 3 (turn off network TV) in 2015. Speaking of which (self-promotion alert) I did a few personal introspective words, possibly a rant in places, on the thing about whether 2014 was or was not a bad year and who decides it for you.
posted by Wordshore at 5:42 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Wordshore at 5:42 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
Not an election year, which always helps.
posted by pseudonick at 5:44 AM on December 30, 2014
posted by pseudonick at 5:44 AM on December 30, 2014
Not an election year, which always helps.
Ahem
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:52 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Ahem
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:52 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
I guess I don't really understand this "2014 sucked" meme. (Heard it on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, of all places!)
On a scale of "suck" to "rock", I thought 2014 was pretty darn ok.
But (and I don't mean to sound a scold) I don't have cable, so I don't have them telling me 24/7 why the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
posted by sutt at 6:00 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
On a scale of "suck" to "rock", I thought 2014 was pretty darn ok.
But (and I don't mean to sound a scold) I don't have cable, so I don't have them telling me 24/7 why the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
posted by sutt at 6:00 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
2014 did not contain more awful shit than other recent years. It was simply the year that the awful shit that has been a part of our lives for many years/decades/lifetimes became undeniable and openly known. The graphic presentation in the middle of "Why 2015 Won't Suck" which showed all the problems being "papered over" (and those are THEIR words) is what must NOT happen. It will take getting through a 2015 that IS worse than 2014 to begin to build a better world. Papering over is just going to put another layer of insulation over the dry rot in modern culture. We need to dig down and cut out the cancer (too many analogies?) and you know what? It won't be pretty. But it's our only hope of not reaching the point in 20 or 50 or 100 years, of the dry rot causing the whole structure to collapse, the cancer spreading to every vital organ and killing us all.
Get to work. Let's make 2015 uglier than 2014, for the sake of 2115.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:07 AM on December 30, 2014 [14 favorites]
Get to work. Let's make 2015 uglier than 2014, for the sake of 2115.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:07 AM on December 30, 2014 [14 favorites]
It's not so much 2014 but the zeitgeist of the decade we are in, and it will continue to at least 2019. It started in 2009/2010. Now it's becoming so cliche everyone is aware of it the next phase will be self-fulfilling making the world view real, leading to a major crisis of some sort (on preview what oneswellfoop said).
posted by stbalbach at 6:09 AM on December 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by stbalbach at 6:09 AM on December 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
"It was simply the year that the awful shit that has been a part of our lives for many years/decades/lifetimes became undeniable and openly known"
Agreed. And to me, that makes 2014 a much better year, for it. Let's hope there's more band-aid pulling next year!
posted by sutt at 6:12 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Agreed. And to me, that makes 2014 a much better year, for it. Let's hope there's more band-aid pulling next year!
posted by sutt at 6:12 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Perhaps being called "Winnie", whether Churchill or the Pooh, makes you an optimist. It's got to be more encouraging than "Losie".
posted by Segundus
Eponysterical
posted by wires at 6:15 AM on December 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Segundus
Eponysterical
posted by wires at 6:15 AM on December 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
I had a good year but the dissonance was overwhelming.
posted by srboisvert at 6:19 AM on December 30, 2014
posted by srboisvert at 6:19 AM on December 30, 2014
Will people be whining less in 2015? Because that would certainly be nice.
posted by Slinga at 6:28 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Slinga at 6:28 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
I've actually noticed more of the worldwide ills this year than in years previous.
But I'm counting that as a sign that it was a GOOD year - because in the years previous, I didn't have the strength to even LOOK at what was happening in the world; I was so caught up in a parade of personal bad luck that it was all I could do to handle my own affairs. If I tried to poke my head out of my burrow and look at what was going on outside, I'd have had a total mental collapse.
So my having the strength to even see what's happening in Ferguson and Crimea and Sudan is a sign that my own back yard is settled, and that is a very good thing indeed.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
But I'm counting that as a sign that it was a GOOD year - because in the years previous, I didn't have the strength to even LOOK at what was happening in the world; I was so caught up in a parade of personal bad luck that it was all I could do to handle my own affairs. If I tried to poke my head out of my burrow and look at what was going on outside, I'd have had a total mental collapse.
So my having the strength to even see what's happening in Ferguson and Crimea and Sudan is a sign that my own back yard is settled, and that is a very good thing indeed.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 AM on December 30, 2014 [5 favorites]
Perhaps being called "Winnie", whether Churchill or the Pooh, makes you an optimist. It's got to be more encouraging than "Losie".
posted by Segundus
Eponysterical
He's always been jealous of his older brother Primus and his success in the early 1990s.
posted by jonp72 at 6:36 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Segundus
Eponysterical
He's always been jealous of his older brother Primus and his success in the early 1990s.
posted by jonp72 at 6:36 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'll be happy if 2015 sees a drop in the use of "garbage" as an adjective. Not a complete ban, just... less of it would be nice.
posted by Etrigan at 6:45 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 6:45 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
One person can create a really fantastic radio show, whereas one person cannot really create a fantastic video game.
Derek Yu, Daisuke Amaya, Nifflas, Tarn Adams, Notch, and many others will be shocked to learn that the widely beloved games they've created are actually crap.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:05 AM on December 30, 2014 [4 favorites]
Derek Yu, Daisuke Amaya, Nifflas, Tarn Adams, Notch, and many others will be shocked to learn that the widely beloved games they've created are actually crap.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:05 AM on December 30, 2014 [4 favorites]
As someone without a thyroid, number 10 is greatly relevant to my interests. I have found myself becoming less enamored of zombie apocalypse fantasies because now I know that my first step is always going to have to be "Run to all the pharmacies and get as much thyroid medication as possible, because otherwise slow and painful death." A new thyroid would make me at least slightly more zombie proof.
But seriously, I'm interested to see how well it does but I don't doubt that the cost of getting that thyroid is much, much more than the total cost of the pills I'm taking for the rest of my life, meaning that Curious Artificer's point is applicable here.
posted by damayanti at 7:18 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
But seriously, I'm interested to see how well it does but I don't doubt that the cost of getting that thyroid is much, much more than the total cost of the pills I'm taking for the rest of my life, meaning that Curious Artificer's point is applicable here.
posted by damayanti at 7:18 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
Etrigan: “I'll be happy if 2015 sees a drop in the use of ‘garbage’ as an adjective. Not a complete ban, just... less of it would be nice.”
Nobody has used "garbage" as an adjective – not in this thread, and not in the article it links to. Has it been used as an adjective prominently elsewhere?
posted by koeselitz at 7:57 AM on December 30, 2014
Nobody has used "garbage" as an adjective – not in this thread, and not in the article it links to. Has it been used as an adjective prominently elsewhere?
posted by koeselitz at 7:57 AM on December 30, 2014
There's something juvenile about ascribing a character to a year, isn't there, something naive to think that just a calender change means anything, even if it does have a psychological impact.
Both the evil and good that happened this year has been the result of years if not decades long trends coming to a boil. Police brutality and repression against black people has been a continuous theme in American life ever since slavery was established, combine that with a slow burn economic depression, the spread of mobile video and it was just a question of time before you had enough awful incidents happening together to change a slow burn into an outburst of protest.
Similarly, the events in Ukraine is the result of centuries of Russian imperialism as well as several decades of the EU and NATO's march eastward, finally upsetting the fragile political balance in the country, the pro-Russian government overthrown in favour of pro-EU "reformers" providing the excuse for Russia to grab Crimea and other parts.
It's just bad luck that this all happened this year, it could just as well have happened last year or next year.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:02 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Both the evil and good that happened this year has been the result of years if not decades long trends coming to a boil. Police brutality and repression against black people has been a continuous theme in American life ever since slavery was established, combine that with a slow burn economic depression, the spread of mobile video and it was just a question of time before you had enough awful incidents happening together to change a slow burn into an outburst of protest.
Similarly, the events in Ukraine is the result of centuries of Russian imperialism as well as several decades of the EU and NATO's march eastward, finally upsetting the fragile political balance in the country, the pro-Russian government overthrown in favour of pro-EU "reformers" providing the excuse for Russia to grab Crimea and other parts.
It's just bad luck that this all happened this year, it could just as well have happened last year or next year.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:02 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
2015 will not suck because I'll have you all here to keep me informed and entertained.
slightly more zombie proof
I have found my New Year resolution.
posted by arcticseal at 8:50 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
slightly more zombie proof
I have found my New Year resolution.
posted by arcticseal at 8:50 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
From the first Medium article:
...I’m also seeing companies like Amazon launch services that basically make computers invisible; they just run your code without making you set up a “computer” to run it; you never even think about what the computer is doing. So we’re getting ever closer to this point where a big chunk of the things we do on the internet are getting super-abstract and super-free.
Pretty sure that the abstraction of what most of us know about computing is the reason why a lot of things in 2014 sucked for a lot of people.
posted by swoopstake at 8:51 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
...I’m also seeing companies like Amazon launch services that basically make computers invisible; they just run your code without making you set up a “computer” to run it; you never even think about what the computer is doing. So we’re getting ever closer to this point where a big chunk of the things we do on the internet are getting super-abstract and super-free.
Pretty sure that the abstraction of what most of us know about computing is the reason why a lot of things in 2014 sucked for a lot of people.
posted by swoopstake at 8:51 AM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
Wait, I thought 2014 was the year for cloud computing? Or maybe that was 2013. Or 2012. Or….
2015 is the year for Linux on the desktop for sure though!
posted by cjorgensen at 9:12 AM on December 30, 2014 [7 favorites]
2015 is the year for Linux on the desktop for sure though!
posted by cjorgensen at 9:12 AM on December 30, 2014 [7 favorites]
God I would love it if Detroit rises again. Apparently, it's well underway, and Black-Owned Businesses Are Quietly Powering Detroit's Resurgence, But No One's Talking About It.
posted by maxsparber at 10:13 AM on December 30, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 10:13 AM on December 30, 2014 [7 favorites]
Don't think it's worth it's own post, but it kinda fits here: Grantland's Who Won 2014? Bracket
posted by nubs at 11:42 AM on December 30, 2014
posted by nubs at 11:42 AM on December 30, 2014
> I guess I don't really understand this "2014 sucked" meme.
From Stoya's piece, of all things:
[Maybe for you] it was clearly biased coverage of events in Ferguson, the propagandized beheading of James Foley, their own personal griefs, the racist overtones of Ebola panic. All conversations, whether with casual acquaintances or close friends, contained at least one heavy pause followed by mutual expression of how terrible everything seems.
Maybe your moment came earlier, in the 2000s while watching smoke pour out of the Twin Towers, feeling the steady erosion of privacy in the name of homeland security, or seeing bank after bank massively fail. Maybe your moment was some other event offered up by 2014’s hideous, sprawling buffet. Maybe your moment hasn’t come quite yet.
[...]
The redeeming hope for 2015 is that even more of us will have stared into the immeasurable depths of suck that the world holds. We will have come to terms with the fact that things do not magically become better. Fewer will waste time standing around with our hands in the air saying, “My God, how could things possibly be this bad?”
We’ll have realized that we have to be the responsible adults now, to put on our grown-up pants and figure things out for ourselves.
(That's very well expressed indeed. I can see why she's a bit of a celebrity...)
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:09 PM on December 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
From Stoya's piece, of all things:
[Maybe for you] it was clearly biased coverage of events in Ferguson, the propagandized beheading of James Foley, their own personal griefs, the racist overtones of Ebola panic. All conversations, whether with casual acquaintances or close friends, contained at least one heavy pause followed by mutual expression of how terrible everything seems.
Maybe your moment came earlier, in the 2000s while watching smoke pour out of the Twin Towers, feeling the steady erosion of privacy in the name of homeland security, or seeing bank after bank massively fail. Maybe your moment was some other event offered up by 2014’s hideous, sprawling buffet. Maybe your moment hasn’t come quite yet.
[...]
The redeeming hope for 2015 is that even more of us will have stared into the immeasurable depths of suck that the world holds. We will have come to terms with the fact that things do not magically become better. Fewer will waste time standing around with our hands in the air saying, “My God, how could things possibly be this bad?”
We’ll have realized that we have to be the responsible adults now, to put on our grown-up pants and figure things out for ourselves.
(That's very well expressed indeed. I can see why she's a bit of a celebrity...)
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:09 PM on December 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
Or, ok, from nubs' link above:
That’s how good we had it a year ago. A year that wasn’t defined by ISIS, Ebola, and hacks of every shape and size. A year without conflicts abroad and at home in Ferguson. A year in which Robin Williams, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amiri Baraka, Joan Rivers, and Tony Gwynn were still alive. A year in which a plane disappeared.
A goddamn plane disappeared into thin air. And, as a collection of rational earthlings, we’ve kind of decided to just accept that as truth and move on. And then nine months later, tragically, another plane disappeared. That’s the kind of year 2014 was.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:17 PM on December 30, 2014
That’s how good we had it a year ago. A year that wasn’t defined by ISIS, Ebola, and hacks of every shape and size. A year without conflicts abroad and at home in Ferguson. A year in which Robin Williams, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amiri Baraka, Joan Rivers, and Tony Gwynn were still alive. A year in which a plane disappeared.
A goddamn plane disappeared into thin air. And, as a collection of rational earthlings, we’ve kind of decided to just accept that as truth and move on. And then nine months later, tragically, another plane disappeared. That’s the kind of year 2014 was.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:17 PM on December 30, 2014
I've known things have sucked for a while now. A bunch of other people figured it out this year.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:09 PM on December 30, 2014
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:09 PM on December 30, 2014
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posted by oulipian at 5:31 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]