Hot Take HOTTER Take is a weekly column by opinion editor Vincent Rendon where the takes are hotter than the inevitable heat-death facing the planet within a few decades if we don’t come together to combat global warming and climate change. Already, we are seeing the disastrous effects of climate change, such as in the recent wildfires in Australia. To help, consider donating to organizations like the Australian Wildlife Society, who need help supporting animals displaced by the fire.

The decade has barely started and already a country is on fire, the Middle East is teetering on the edge of further destabilization, the sixth-seed Tennessee Titans knocked off the unstoppable first-place Baltimore Ravens, and Uncut Gems didn’t get a single Oscar nomination, really? Look, every decade ends up being remembered for something. It helps us, as a society, throw decade themed parties, which at this point are a societal backbone. The 50s had sock-hops and milkshakes (and racism but…), the 70s had disco, the 30s had the Great Depression, and I think the 2010s will be remembered for just having regular depression (maybe only for me). The 1920s had one of the clearest themes, “the Roaring 20s” were a time of glitz and glamour and fun. Now that we are in a new “twenties” should we bring “the roaring 20s” theme back?

Hot Take—Don’t treat this decade like the Roaring 20s

I’m as big a fan of aesthetics and parallelism as anyone else, but just because we are in the 20s again doesn’t mean we need to recycle another decade’s swag. Already, I’ve seen ads for roaring 20s themed parties and posts on social media about people wanting this decade to be just as filled with extravagance and merry as the one a century ago was. I think, ultimately, this misses the great message of the 1920s: all the partying and living lavishly and moonshining are unsustainable. Eventually, it will crash, as the stock market literally did at the end of the decade. Also, most media depicting the glory of the 1920s only focuses on the upper crust, rarely on the lower classes. We shouldn’t further encourage a society mythologizing the elite when very few of us are Jay Gatsby’s. 

HOTTER Take—Embrace the worst parts of this decade

To me, the last decade does not feel distinct in style or purpose. We churned through trends too quickly, and the minute something got popular we all turned against it. A 2010s party is hard to imagine, and so too would a 2020 party if we don’t learn how to embrace what makes this time special in our life. Meaning, we can’t define ourselves in terms of past decades either. We might not like whatever our style ends up being, but at least we can come to appreciate it as being our own. If this decade becomes known as the TikTok decade, we just have to accept it—at least it’s ours. 

Vincent Rendon can be reached at vrendon@sagebush.unr.edu or on Twitter @vincesagebrush.