Well said, and a good point about the 2000s, though I think that there is something that this decade will be remembered for: conformity. Every decade has seen its share of break-aways from the social norm: beatnicks in the 50s, hippies in the 60s, disco in the 70s, punks in the 80s, and thugs in the 90s. And these are almost always liked to the media, the popular music, popular fashion, and so on. But the 2000s are interesting because now pop music/fashion/etc. pushes conformity and fitting in over expressing individualsm like the long hair and spiked jackets of yesteryear.
Partly I think it's because nothing shocks us anymore. The kinds of violence and sex that are on prime time television nowadays would have been relegated to NC-17 movies in the 80s, and things like porno and drugs are so commonplace in pop culture (such as Jenna Jameson writing a book) there are few avenues for sixteen year olds to go down when looking for good shock value material. Plus, the fashon trends, at least the ones I see living on a college campus, are less flamobyant and more low-key, modern, and simple.
I think the lesson here is that the social veil of the perfect suburban family has been slowly eroding since the 1950s, and by now it is almost transparent. Now in the 2000s the political veil is coming off, and that is going to be what this decade is remembered for more than its rather pathetic fasion footprint.
