| Popis: |
As a scientist, I am not much inclined to think about the mystical or mythical significance of dates. But I awoke to the power of such ideas after reading Vaclav Havel's stirring speech "The Measure of Man" (July 4, 1994), which received much attention. Havel joined his concerns about contemporary society to the forthcoming end of the millennium in ways I found disturbing. He described the approach to the millennium as a "transitional period," a time when "all consistent value systems collapse," when "everything is possible because our civilization does not have its own spirit." And Havel held science responsible. You can understand my concern. Havel's thoughts troubled me for another reason. When I was a child, my religious school teachers stressed that the year one, in the common calendar, was an adopted convention of no particular significance. They taught me that we counted the years before I backward and labeled them B.C.E.-Before the Common Era. I was left to figure out for myself why, in public school, we used the same numbers but different abbreviations: B.C. and A.D. To make matters worse, I was taught another yearly numbering systemone that appeared on all Jewish calendars and on Rosh Hashanah notices from my synagogue. It starts with the beginning of the world, calculated back from the biblical generations, making the current year 5757. Why do Havel and others, then, place such importance on a number of no special consequence? |
