Name these times

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, March 8, 2009 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Name these times
By Aaron J. Brown

The Great Depression. The Crusades. The Dark Ages. The Renaissance. And, of course, the Iron Range Recession of the 1980s (known locally by one pseudo-word: “Da’eighties”).

These terms describe historic periods of great significance to varying numbers of people. The Crusades represent the roundabout reason there is strife in the Mideast. The Iron Range economic crunch of the 1980s is the roundabout reason there are now more Iron Rangers living in the Twin Cities than who live here now. I don’t have to explain much for some of you to experience some spark of awareness or emotion when you see these descriptions.

We know what we’re in. It’s a recession and certain indicators show that it might be more. Nevertheless, a TV news commentator might breathlessly declare today’s economic conditions as being like the Great Depression, while another describes them in terms of Japan’s “Lost Decade.” That’s a favorite of mine; most Americans didn’t know that Japan “lost a decade” in the 1990s but today the guy who orders parts for your department is talking about it like he’s a Nobel laureate economist. While aspects of the Depression, the Lost Decade or the period in the late 1800s where America’s economy stagnated for two decades might hold relevance, today is different.

In all cases, the numbers are larger. Budgets are vaster. Everyday people are more connected to the stock market than ever. And yet, government programs like education, transportation and health care are part of the fabric of society now. The very nature of how people live their lives, buy and sell their goods and define a good living has changed. I can transmit a video from here to most places on Earth in a few minutes. If I lost my job tomorrow I could still do that. Today’s economy is relatively terrible, demands correction, but no one is selling apples on street corners.

With the omnipresent information demands of the internet and cable TV channels, media professionals have to fill more time and muscle out more competition. Thinking and doing research is hard; so, instead, we talk. If no one listens, we talk louder and if we talk loud enough we get on TV. Just as water always takes the path of least resistance, today’s writers (including myself) often take the easy way out. And that includes describing the events of today as being “just like” the events of some readily recognizable event of the past. The similarities between the present and past are vitally important, but the differences are what define our time on this Earth.

For instance, the Dark Ages terms a long period in European history as a time limited to disease, wars and slow social development. Conversely, the following Renaissance, literally translated as “rebirth,” describes the time when European society expanded the arts and sciences, welcoming an age of reason to the vicious world known before. Historians will tell you these descriptions remain only partly true. Historic developments were achieved during the Dark Ages and both eras saw rampant public defecation. The similarities were great, but the fact remains: one had to follow the other. Each represented part of a string of vital, but incomplete progress.

I’ve heard many relatives, friends and colleagues describe the downturn at local Iron Range taconite mines as being just like those we saw in the 1980s. In that taconite plants are experiencing layoffs and shutdowns, the similarities are thick. In that mustaches and mullets are somewhat less fashionable, and that Iron Range mines have modernized a great deal since the 1980s, the similarities don’t hold water. I don’t say this to give the many worried families of the Iron Range unjustified confidence. Rather, I contest that we are all in this together for a new era that combines the truth of the past with the unknown of the future.

These times deserve a new name.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com. His new book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.