ABSTRACT
The December 26, 1994, issue of Newsweek, eager to capitalize on the approach of the millennium, offered a series of predictions in a special section, introduced by the irrefutable comment that "the start of a new millennium doesn't roll around every day." The second act of the popular Broadway show Angels in America is entitled "The Millennium Approaches"; it presents the millennium, a bit vaguely, as a point at which earthlings must choose whether to continue their profligate ways or settle down and take care of things. The insistence that the upcoming millennium designates an artificial, human-constructed span of time is an essential starting point, lest we somehow see our attention to a new era as the pinnacle of world cultural achievement. Things were supposed to happen soon, and most prophets are loath to wait till a convenient end of century, much less millennium, to see how things work out.
