There is an “instant everything, I can’t wait, and who cares anyway” syndrome that seems to have infected and diminished societies throughout the world. This was vividly apparent when millions of people around the globe celebrated the New Millennium fourteen years ago. It was a kind of mass hysteria, a phenomenon in which they celebrated the arrival of something that had not yet arrived while expressing absolute confidence that it had. In fact it would not arrive for another year.

We—most people on this planet—schedule our lives according to the Gregorian calendar. However, in light of the aforementioned premature global celebration of the New Millennium, it would seem that millions of reasonably well educated people don’t know how that calendar works.

For my purposes here, the singular fact to know is that the construct of the Gregorian calendar is not open to interpretation. It was designed according to fixed concepts and rules without which it would be functionally useless. This is not a “purist” view, as some would have it. In its use, our calendar has just one view and allows no other. With that in mind, let’s agree that the 20^th Century did not end until the last second of the last day of December, 2000, and the 21^st Century and the new millennium—the third millennium—did not begin until the first second of the first day of January in the year 2001. Again, this is either true or it is not; there is no room for interpretation. If we all nuanced the Gregorian calendar to fit our particular time restraints or other time-related needs, it would be more than absurd; it would cause chaos throughout the entire world.

For those of you who are interested, there is a more detailed explanation of how our calendar works in the final paragraphs. But I can tell you without an iota of doubt that the New (Third) Millennium began on January 1, 2001.

So why did millions of people throughout the world celebrate the arrival of the new millennium on January 1, 2000, one full year before it actually arrived? I could ruminate on Freudian theory for unconscious root causes. I could probably convince some that due to high stress levels caused by the exigencies of our high-tech life styles we experienced a kind of global premature emotional orgasm. But I wouldn’t think of even mentioning such a thing. So let’s stay with some obvious possible reasons:

1. The media and others did not want to wait another year to make a lot of money.
2. People bought into it without questioning its authenticity because it was a chance to feel good with others all around the world. Of course that would have been true one year later, as well.
3. Facts, truth, and the concept of reality have become demoted, obscured, replaced by many people with perceived realities—by what they want to be rather than what actually is. This is akin to a child’s imaginary life. Instant gratification fits here rather nicely.

We Americans are accustomed to instant everything, much of which resolves to instant gratification. “A buck now is better than a buck later.” – even though sometimes a buck later with interest or earnings is definitely better.

Then there is the “Who cares, what’s the difference” thing and it’s a biggy! It is part of a greater general malaise afflicting “younger” generations these days. (I am in an “older” generation). Daily, one hears of high percentages (like 90%) of high school and college students admitting to cheating on their exams; of commonly acknowledged student values that defend the idea that attaining a degree is the paramount objective and that learning the material is less than secondary in importance; that “playing the role” is just as good as “being the role” – maybe even better. Just recently, we learned that many New York City school teachers and administrators have routinely encouraged and helped students to cheat. In my student days, those things would have been an international scandal. The outcry from parents would have been deafening and the schools and teachers would have been publicly disgraced.

It should be clear that celebrating the beginning of the next thousand years prematurely did not happen in a psychological vacuum. The collective wisdom of the ages instructs us to conduct our lives within a fact-based reality system. Stable societies with successful economies, reasonably effective civil governments, and formidable defenses have all adopted this principle.

It is implicit in a fact-based society that its members are required to do the work of living, learning, and generally conducting their lives without taking shortcuts. Otherwise, they will not produce the kinds of accomplishments necessary to maintain stability and growth, and the thread of human progress will be broken. Members of my generation were routinely infused with adages such as “A job worth doing is a job worth doing well.” Cheating in school was rare and cheaters were surely not admired by anyone. We were cautioned with “If you cheat, you cheat only yourself.” My parents did not author these gems of wisdom; they had been handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years—and they are as important today as they always were.

Some things really are black or white; they are or they are not. On January 1, 2000 it was either the 20^th Century or it was the 21^st Century. It was not a matter of opinion; it was a matter of fact and the fact was that on January 1, 2000 it was still the 20^th Century. In fact it was still the 20^th Century on December 31, 2000. Now how about that!

We do not celebrate our birthday until it arrives according to the Gregorian calendar. Cashiers at a racetrack will not pay us for a winning ticket until and unless our horse has actually placed in the money according to our bet and the official results of the race. A diploma or degree signifies and honors nothing of value if the work has not been done and the knowledge has not been learned. In truth, it denotes dishonor if it is accepted when it has not been earned. Truth be told, the holder of that degree would be a fake, a phony. There are no gray areas here and there is no room for interpretation. Short of a fun and silly reason to celebrate something, anything, we would not typically say “Hey, I almost won the lottery, let’s celebrate.”

As promised, for those who would like a detailed explanation of just exactly how our Gregorian calendar works, here it is:

The simplest explanation is that you must actually live one full year before you are one year old and before you begin your second year. As you will see, it is really not more complicated than that, though it may seem like it is. But let’s stick with this for a moment. You must live ten full years before you are ten years old.

Okay, simple enough, and we use the same rule to account for our historical years. From day one on our Gregorian calendar, we must have finished ten full years in order to complete the first decade and before we can begin the next decade. The same applies to centuries and millenniums.

Think of birthdays again. From the moment of our birth, our age is calculated from zero to the end of the first year and so on, year after year. For example, at three months of age our parents would say that we are three months old, thereby, and without a second thought, confirming that they began counting from zero — and that it is unnecessary to also state that it is three months of the first year.

If you were born on January 1, 1 (year 1 of our Gregorian calendar), you would have lived one full year on December 31, 1. You would celebrate your first birthday on January 1, 2 (year 2 of our Gregorian calendar) and you would begin your second year on that day. Now take a few moments to make sure that the above two sentences are perfectly clear to you. It is not complicated but once it is clearly understood everything else will make sense—decades, centuries, and millenniums.

Continuing from your birth on January 1, 1, you would complete your first decade on Earth on December 31, 10 and you would celebrate your tenth birthday on January 1, 11 (the first day of the eleventh year) at which time you would have lived ten full years and would begin your 11^th year and your second decade.

And so it is with our millennium count. The end of the 10^th Century was also the end of the 1^st Millennium. The 20^th Century did not end until the last second of the last day of December, 2000. This date also marked the end of the 2^nd Millennium. The 21^st Century and the new millennium—the third millennium—began on the first second of the first day of January in the year 2001. That’s it! It’s not a purist view, it simply is.

So why did we celebrate the New Millennium on January 1, 2000, a full year too soon? Any ideas? I would be delighted if you would share them with me.