. . . And the Invention of the Future Tense

This is the last session of the last meeting of the International Society of Barristers in the 1900s. Though the Third Millennium technically does not begin until 2001, the turn of the odometer from 1999 to 2000 leads us all to think of this as the end of a century and of a millennium. The pivotal date is yet ten nonths away, but the pundits are already issuing their lists, both profound and trivial-the greatest inventions, the best books, the worst natural catastrophes, the trial or tile century (of which there are at least a half dozen), the most influential thinkers, and on and on. Often there is in these lists the implicit question whether, over time, the world is becoming a better place or is mired, perhaps permanently, in man\u27s inhumanity to man. There is, indeed, a great deal of millennial angst. For most of us in this room, the sources of that angst range from the general to the professional to the personal