Can the Victorian Age be linked to today?

In “The Victorian Age “on page 980 and 981 it discusses Queen Victoria, when she came to the throne, and how writers began to coin this period as a time of “change.” For example, in 1831 John Stuart Mill wrote “we are living in an age of transition” while Thomas Carlyle exclaimed “The Old has passed away, but alas, the New appears not in its stead; the Time is still in pangs of travail with the New.” The first contemporary parallel that comes to mind is the election of President Obama in 2008. Of course I do not mean to compare the leadership abilities of Queen Victoria to our president today or go into politics. But it only makes sense to compare the Victorian age to Obama’s presidency since both have been associated with “change.”

During Queen Victoria’s reign, numerous changes took place including the Industrial Revolution and overall social reform. Moreover, this was a time of technological, political, socioeconomic, and religious reformation. It was also a period of great literature with authors such as Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. Not to mention, page 980 states “Changes in the reproduction of visual images aided in making her the icon she became” which is yet another reason why Queen Victoria is quickly identified with a time of transformation.

Next, some American’s would quickly link Obama’s presidency to “change” especially since this was his slogan and enforced the idea throughout his entire campaign. First and foremost, Obama is a democrat which can be argued as a modest or an immense change for the White House since it had been ran by a republican for the last eight years. Next Obama can be associated with change in our country since he has vowed to cut taxes, end the war in Iraq, and attempt to break America’s dependence on Mideast oil. Not to mention, in his first 100 days of office he began to repeal and revoke policies that are identified with the Bush administration as a form of change. Finally, Obama played a major role in the health care reformation in the United States in 2010 as we all probably know.

Ultimately, Obama has not brought about an immense reformation like in the Victorian age, nor do I mean to bring about a debate on politics (and whether Obama has actually made a difference in our country), but I think one could easily unite the two periods (and their leaders) together under the idea of “change.” Lastly, I just realized that the two time periods are similar because not everyone (in the Victorian age and now) sees the multitude of “change” or “progress” as a good thing.