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Thu 22 Oct, 2009 03:39 am
Quote:By then, the new era had begun. Suddenly the long decade that had just ended " spanning from the fall of the wall in 1989 until 10 September 2001 " began to look like a rare respite, the only time since 1939 when the free world had not been locked in a titanic struggle against a vast and terrifying enemy. Starting on 9/11, the noughties saw normal service resumed.
what - or who - are noughties??
@sullyfish6,
Oh, the noughties refer to the first decade of the 21st century.
In the early days of television, technical problems in the studios or at the transmitters often meant that programs were temporarily suspended. Often, a message would be transmitted saying "Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible". The phrase "normal service" has come to mean "The normal situation which exists before, and which is restored after, a temporary interruption".
What the writer is saying is that from 1939 to 1989, the "free world" was in a struggle against an "enemy" (I think the writer means communism) and during the 1990s there was a period in which this was not so, which lasted until 11th Sep 2001, following which another period of struggle ("normal service") began in the first decade of the 21st century. (The '00s - nought is a word for zero)
I have not the time to explain just what a stupid and US-centric piece of garbage I think the quoted piece is.
@fansy,
normal service = status quo ante
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