Corporate DispatchPro
The purring twenties In 1920, a Johnson & Johnson employee came up with a simple solution to dress minor cuts – the adhesive bandage. His employers trademarked the invention and started mass-producing the world-famous Band-Aid. Besides the geniality of the idea, its success was in part driven by a novel wave of consumerism and technological optimism that culminated in the culturaleconomic revolution that swept through the Roarin’ 20s. It was a decade of “rugged individualism” that democratised cars and launched transatlantic flights; introduced women’s suffrage in the US and Coco Chanel’s little black dress in France; filled airwaves with frothy jazz and city squares with Art Nouveau. It was a time of rekindled confidence in human capability, rebuilding from the horrors of the Great War and the decimation of the Spanish Flu. A century later, the world finds its roar silenced by a crushing pandemic. Expectations for the future remain generally high, but the events in the first two decades leading to the 2020s have injected a sense of caution, particularly in the youngest generations. The century started with the 9/11 attacks which exposed a dangerous clash of values and established political terrorism on a global scale. The events altered the world’s collective consciousness and radicalised beliefs at both ends of the spectrum. The ensuing ‘war on terrorism’ marked the Bush Presidency and pitted allies against each other. The raging global economy was not to be deterred by the Washington agenda, but it ground to a halt when trouble hit Wall Street. The 2008 credit crunch spread like wildfire causing the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression. The word ‘crisis’ flashed from every news broadcast for months on end as millions of people lost jobs, houses, and savings. 29
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