The Spontaneous Combustion of the 20th Century

Very few things burst into flame on their own without an outside spark, be the spark diabolical, divine, zippo.

Silver nitrate film is my favorite one.

Widely used for theatrical releases of movies up through 1951, after a few years of decay in poor storage conditions -- read humid or warm -- this stuff will burst into flames at a much lower temperature than newsprint and will do so on account of the pressure build-up from the fumes it off-gasses during the decay. (Physicists and science teachers: I would like a better account of this process without actually having to look it up on Wikipedia... That sets a new low bar for laziness: too lazy to look it up on Wikipedia).

Every time a reel of silver nitrate film bursts into flames it takes a piece of 20th century culture with it, and it seems entirely appropriate that 20th century culture should leave the world in this way.

It was a century of dramatic technological innovation and the democratization of materialism (regionally). In the course of a single lifetime, both photography and motion picture technology was invented, commercialized as high performance art, and turned over to hundreds of millions of people for personal, private, amateur use. Traditional folk arts died and new folk arts were born. Optimism and rapid change always bring unintended consequences, good ones like penicillin, mix-tapes, and time-shifted television viewing but also questionable ones like the end of pedestrian culture, and outright bad ones like cancer caused by estrogen treatments for menopause or (jury's in) global climate change. A lot of the things I loved the most about the 20th century were the unintended consequences of Cold War technologies.

Spontaneous combustion seems like the fitting end for a century of unintended consequences.

In contrast, I think the 21st century is all about carefully orchestrated consequences. Grassroots methodologies build support for political candidates, expensive research studies demonstrate exactly how to game a social network for maximum commercial benefit, Ariana Huffington proves that enough money can make up for being a total newb. Everything is half commercial and half folk and everything we say is completely ephemeral until the spooks open an investigation and we find out that no small packet of bits goes unrecorded. 21st century culture won't spontaneously combust, rather you won't be able to find it when you need but you'll never be able to get rid of it when you want to.