Idea of Time, Part II: The Magic Number 100

Edvard Munch. Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche. Norway, 1906.

Before Nietzsche's "revelation" at around 1880, there was a cohesive system of meanings that had been formed and preserved over centuries. The destruction of this system gave rise to modernism, which emphasizes the loneliness of humanity in a world that is alien and disproportionate to it. From this point of no return, the feelings of cold and emptiness, which Nietzsche viewed merely as philosophical insights, became the dominant mood of culture. The recognition of the need to confront the apparent hopelessness of isolation led to the emergence of the "idea of the past." This idea was meant to serve as a remedy.

However, the "idea of the past" can only be uplifting when it is perceived as an ideal: the notion that there was a better time, which "warms" us in the harsh present. Yet humans are inclined to search for and identify a key event, often a hundred years prior, after which "everything changed." One hundred years is a magical number; it is both recent and distant. Many artifacts from a century ago surround us, reinforcing our consciousness of the connection between eras.

For people at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, this remedy worked: a hundred years ago represented the Age of Enlightenment, with the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity from the French Revolution, as well as Romanticism. But for us, living in the 21st century, that period is marked by world wars, economic crises, and totalitarian regimes, casting a shadow of horror over the past. Consequently, turning to it no longer provides a sense of stability or ideal reference points, instead amplifying feelings of anxiety and unease.