Oh, yeah, the calendar rolled around to a new year last night. All I can say is…I don’t care. 2014 was an awful year, there’s no promise that this coming year will be better, and flipping a digit on my chronometer is not a magical transition that will make everything all better.
I can say that my tendency towards increasing cynicism maintains its steady trend. Nope, no discontinuity in the pattern was observed at the stroke of midnight.
Cristina is a kindred spirit.
It’s not that the world is going to get any better or that human nature will improve; it’s that we have another chance to behave honorably and make the world a little better, so that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and so that, with luck, someone will miss us when we’re gone.
I would wish PZ and a great many FtB regulars a happy new year – not because I fondly imagine the arbitrary digit business actually matters or means anything per se, but because a world in which this turned out to be a good year for decent, informed and compassionate human beings would be a good world to share.
Not an expectation, but certainly a wish – and an expression of my appreciation for this site, this blog and those who sail in its wake.
Markita Lynda,
We have that chance every day. Just like I don’t suddenly turn a year older in a day on my birthday. It happens bit by bit.
I’m sure there are people who can make a New Year’s resolution and stick with it, but you don’t need a once-in-a-year opportunity for that.
But yeah… I get the sentimentality and making change easier by adding another kind of importance to it.
I think I’m just in a similar mood to PZ today :)
I think her video backfired because it put a big smile on my face :P
Also, i’m proud to say i’m one of the pathetic ones that didn’t go out last night. Mind you, i did have plans, but they took too long to set a time to meet so i fell asleep in front of the telly, and spent my new years moistening the sofa with my spit, then hours later watched a movie and went to bed, like a boss :D
Things are improving, albeit at an almost imperceptibly slow rate. Religious belief is in decline. Humanism is growing.
PZ, you sound like a grumpy old man this morning.
The time of the winter solstice is always a time of hope for the coming new year. I agree that things don’t look too great for this country right now, but we have to cling to some hope.
We partied with friends last night, most of whom we only see once or twice a year. We’re soon headed to a nice New Year brunch with our freethinking friends. This is a great time of year to get together with some friends and at least have a bit of hope for the coming year.
Happy New Year to the horde! FTB helps to keep me sane. I read the news and want to throw my computer. Then I come to FTB and connect with others who feel the same way. It does help, if only to keep my computer intact.
Thanks to all of you, and may 2015 be a decent year for all of us.
“You have a hangover like God took a dump on your soul” Dark poetry!
I agree that the turn of the calendar is an arbitrary date. I don’t celebrate; I’d rather wake up well rested for my day off. But it’s not a date to throw away hope, either. Every day is an opportunity to survive and perhaps do better than before.
I love her. And I stayed home last night, played cards with some of the family, watched logs burn lazily in the fireplace as I sipped on some good brandy. Didn’t even pay attention to the “big moment” going by. I think it slipped past while I was skype chatting with a friend down under. Never gave a shit about New Years Eve. Must go watch the fire a bit more. I think it needs some eyeballs.
#8, well said!
Actual reasons to be happy about the New Year:
For us Northern Hemisphere dwellers of non-tropical latitudes, it is a bookmark on the timeline that our days have already started to become slightly longer each day. (Sorry, down-unders, but at least you can bask in your long days of natural light right now.)
For us fortunate enough not to have to rely on a job that requires up to work on work on January 1, it is an extra day off to relax and recover from the frenetic pace of holiday activity that leads up to and consumes the weeks preceding.
It is, for most of us in the countries I am familiar with anyway, a holiday that is not significantly steeped in religious or patriotic hegemony or silly revisionist history.
I often rationalize myself into happiness by realizing that being unhappy does not change anything I am unhappy about, and that being optimistic or hopeful about something gives me the energy to contribute in some small way to making life better for somebody that needs it.
I was up until after midnight because, as usual, the rights of some people to set off illegal fireworks in celebration around town trumped my right to quiet.
Yeah, not with you on this one, and I didn’t do anything last night, worked until 11pm, and right back home for a cereal/tuna can dinner and a movie, and today I’m just catching up on my open Firefox tabs.
New Year is the one holiday that seems innocuous to me, without the blatant BUY SHIT vibe of some of the others like christmas and Valentine’s and the religiosity and nationalistic BS of the remaining others.
microraptor:
Right there with you. Doesn’t help a person’s mood at all, especially when the fireworks are so close and sound like bombs going off.
So far, this year is seriously sucking, all I can do is hope for better as it goes on.
Chills, fever and trying to sleep, with fireworks punctuating the evening and making the dogs jump.
We don’t party because we are happy. It is cold, dark & depressing. So we light lights, crank up the music, drink, and chat w/ friends to get through it!
Good grief – what a grumpy bunch of killjoys! The Hogmanay Ball was excellent as usual – Scottish Country dancing ’till midnight followed by a great supper. No religious component, no gift giving, no New Year resolutions, no fireworks – just a bunch of people using the date as an excuse to get together and have a good time.
Feel free to celebrate or not as you please – but maybe lighten up just a tad?
as a former rock and blues musician news years eve is amateur night when those who rarely party try to party like the professionals makes for some dangerous situations on the road and other places.
The thing I like about Jan 1, that sets it apart from all other days of the year, is it is the quietest morning of the year bar none fewer people are getting up early or are even able to get up early than any other day of the year.
It is an arbitrary day we ( someone in the past) chose to mark the repeating of the cycle of the year and started counting from some other point all before we had any idea what was really happening.
I try to remember when ever things seem dark, darker, darkest that I can start anew at any time I chose, some times more than once a day!
so happy happy
uncle frogy
I really like the idea that if you wake up and find it is not true that you grew hair on your eyeballs — well! There’s a great reason to throw a party.
A good reason to stay home, no desire to be trampled:
Slate link.
Gotta say I think the fireworks in Dubai were the most impressive:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/31/dubai-new-years-eve-fireworks/21118271/
A weirder, and more complete, look at the Dubai fireworks, featuring many-story high renditions of various sheiks.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/dubai-celebrates-arrival-2015-27932077
Having gone to bed at 10.30 I celebrated the new year like I do every day by going out for a quiet morning bike ride. For some reason the roads were nice and empty at 6am. Happy today everyone.
A report during the news on the radio (Sky News I think, so maybe to be taken with a pinch of salt) in the taxi I was in a couple of hours ago suggested that the stampede was caused by somebody throwing vast quantities of fake paper money from a skyscraper window.
It’s just a reason for people to come together and celebrate. Also, in general, we like milestones and symbolism. I hate both these things and also crowds of people, especially if they’re drunk, so I don’t care about NYE. If anything, I’d rather work on that day and get the next day off.
Acolyte of Sagan
A recent news article disputes this suggestion.
Yeah, all my hope for humanity pretty much rotted away over the course of the last 10 years. No amount of fireworks, Auld Lang Syne, and liberal naïveté (aka “optimism”) is going stop our decline into capitalist/theist barbarism, followed by a horrific extinction.
Anyway, I spent last night eating shrimp cocktail and watching “family ” films with my sister and her kids. Today, I’m right back at my dead-end, low-paying job wondering wear the hell I’m going to get the money to pay for some much needed dental work (yes, I have insurance and yes, it covers jack shit) that’s coming up.
So happy fucking New Year. (/sarcasm)
And 4000 slum dwellers of Manila lost everything all because of illegal fireworks burning down their homes. All for a bit of calendaric feelgood.
Hey, it means that the Christmas season is now finally over, you can enjoy that, right?
Man, I hate fireworks. They are illegal inside the city limits, but I guess the cops must be so busy setting off their own fireworks that they ignore everyone else. Our neighbors started “practicing” several nights ago.
My poor German Shepherd is terrified of the loud booms. He comes running over to me to protect him when he hears it.
As we left for the party we closed the curtains near his bed and gave him one of his “doggy tylenols” for his joint pain.
When we came home, he came down the stairs, whimpering. He had gone to the upstairs hallway where there are no windows and the sound would be muffled. The poor boy must have been beside himself with fear.
As a person who grew up in the north, where there was an ice storm most NYEs, I really don’t get the whole idea of fireworks at New Year’s. I was used to it being only a July 4 thing.
The fireworks are bad enough on their own in my area, but people also seem compelled to fire off guns (apparently inside the city limits) as well for both New Year’s and July 4th.
Awesome! I’m an inspiration to Christina Rad.
Arrrh – The neighbors are still shooting off those damn fireworks this evening.
My poor dog levitated off of his bed and hurried to spend the evening at my feet.
I’m with PZ and Cristina. I stayed home with my vodka, a blanket, and Netflix.
Also, I adore Cristina, in a not-stalker-way.
Frank Zappa was once asked if he was becoming more cynical with age. He replied that no he wasn’t, but that he was just gathering more evidence for his cynicism.
Prezactly! There’s certainly plenty of reasons to be despondent – particularly for Americans, with the rabid right about to take control of the Senate – but if you’re a progressive, that’s how “They” want you to feel. Anyone interested can read about my NYE in the Lounge.
Actually, it’s a decent time to be alive. Believe it, or not:
Psst! It’s the best time to be alive
David Wilford #36
If that sounded familiar…
For who?
That article is dripping with noxious privilege.
*whom (I think…)
New Year’s Day is a completely arbitrary boundary point, and many people in past centuries and different places have started the year on different dates. The year-number epoch, which year gets numbered 1, is also completely arbitrary. But I wouldn’t want to interfere with anyone’s fun.
For New Year’s Day, I’d prefer some celestial signpost, like one of the solstices or equinoxes. For an epoch, I’d prefer some calculated date of the creation of the Universe, like in the Jewish calendar. This year using some other epochs:
Seleucid Era: 2326
Anno Urbis Conditae (AUC) (Marcus Terentius Varro): 2768
Olympian Era: 2791, the 3rd year of the 698th Olympiad
Chinese: 4652
But it’s certainly preferable to the original system of dating, the year-reign system. If we still used that, this year would be
Barack Obama 7
Enrique Peña Nieto 3
Dilma Rousseff 4
Queen Elizabeth II 63
– David Cameron 5
– Stephen Harper 10
– Tony Abbott 3
– John Key 8
Michael Higgins 4
François Hollande 4
Angela Merkel 11
King Felipe VI 1
Matteo Renzi 1
Benjamin Netanyahu (II) 7
King Abdullah 11
Hassan Rouhani 2
Vladimir Putin (II) 4
Narendra Modi 1
Emperor Akihito 27
– Shinzo Abe 4
Park Geun-hye 2
Xi Jinping 2
among others.
Saad @ 38:
Bob Collins’ reply to a comment nicely sums up the point being made, I think:
There being young people like Cristina Rad is a reason for optimism.
I stayed in. I vegged behind my computer and chatted to friends, just like.. well most of my nights anyway.
On old years day, we dutchies often have/make Oliebollen, a real dutch treat. Usually my dad makes them, but as my parents are traveling right now, i made them myself in the afternoon and they were awesome.
I don’t do resolutions. I fight hard for everything i want to accomplish and last year has been absolutely amazing. All i can wish for is just “more of the same please!” and as my attitude doesn’t change, there will be.
Even if tragedy will strike, it will be part of life and dealt with in that manner. Bad things happen, good things happen. The trick is to let go of the bad emotionally though remember it rationally and celebrate the good emotionally and .. well also remember it rationally.
I see the turn of the year as taking a new dummy book, opening it and seeing an empty page, fresh, ready to be written in while you look back at dummy book you just closed that’s full of the stories and experiences of the year before.
So i will say.. happy new year. I wish everybody lots of good experiences, happy moments and strength to deal with challenges that will be encountered in 2015.
Here’s the last paragraph of the article David Wilford linked to:
That, right there, is the biggest reason to be fearful – but not despondent. The richest, most powerful, most influential state in the world, the USA, has a political system and class so corrupt, and so much in thrall to fossil fuel corporations and religious extremists, that it is likely to block any attempt to take effective action against the biggest threat we currently face. Most other powerful states are similarly in the grip of corrupt, parasitic elites – none quite so stupid as that in the USA, but none, either, willing to face up to the radical change needed if we are to deal with that threat.