Another New York Times columnist on language, Jack Rosenthal, thinks that this term sounds creak and old-fashioned. Rosenthal favors the OOs , pronounced ohs . We could be prophesying the economy of the aughts, aughties, or ohs. The choice is yours, or yores . The millennial marking of the year 2000 A.D. results from the Christian dating of time from the birth of Christ.
Religion contributes the marking of time in most other major civilizations as well.
As in so many other areas, the various religions do not bother with cross-cultural consistency. A.D. Buddhists commemorate the year 2543. But for those using the Christian-based calendar, the end of the century and the new millennium is an appropriate point to consider how far we have advanced as a civilization. To do so, we might examine the state of Western civilization in the year 1000 the previous millennium as a means of measuring this progress. The task is not an easy one.