Beloit College's Mindset List has me thinking: what will future lists look like? Some ideas:
The 2024 List
- The Class of 2024 were born in 2002.
- They never saw Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers on live TV.
- The World Trade Center has never existed.
- There has always been an American military presence in Afghanistan.
- Monica Lewinsky means as much to them as Christine Keeler meant to their parents.
The 2034 List
- The Class of 2034 were born in 2012.
- Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, John Hughes, and Brittany Murphy died before they were born.
- The President has always been black, Latino, or a woman.
- They have never heard their parents worry about providing health insurance.
- Their classmates could include Samuel Affleck and Blue Ivy Knowles.
The 2059 List
- The Class of 2059 were born in 2037.
- The Mississippi River has always flowed through Morgan City, Louisiana.
- Scotland, Catalunya, Kurdistan, and Wallonia have always been independent countries; West Sahara, Nepal, and North Korea have never been.
- To them, an iPad seems as quaint as a Selectric was to their parents.
The 2102 List
- The Class of 2102 were born in 2079.
- They are the 100th class to have their own List.
- Incoming first-year classes have always spent the previous year in the military or in public service.
- Beloit College's campus has always had palm trees, and the surrounding area has always had orange groves.
- New York City has always had a seawall; New Orleans and Miami have always been islands; Greenland has always been green.
- Trains from Chicago to New York, Atlanta, and Kansas City have always been faster and less expensive than airplanes.
- They have always needed a passport to visit Dallas, and never needed one to visit Toronto.
- People have always walked on Mars, and there has always been a permanent base on the moon.
Any other ideas?