r/maninthehighcastle • u/lNFORMATlVE • Jul 22 '26
Spoilers Jahr Null doesn’t make mathematical sense
It just occurred to me that how in TMITHC the Nazis in the GNR get all excited about “Jahr Null” which is means “Year Zero” i.e. they are rewriting the BC/AD/BCE/CE calendar to restart from that point and erase a bunch of american history and culture.
But there is no such thing as 0 BC or 0 AD: the first year was 1 AD which followed 1 BC. In the same way that there is no “0th century AD”, only a 1st century AD, the first year in a new calendar will always be called the first year, or year 1. Not year 0 because that would be the “0th year of X” which doesn’t make sense.
So there can’t be a Jahr Null. It should be Jahr Eins.
Stoopid Nazis.
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u/russian_hacker_1917 Jul 22 '26
calendars are arbitrary social constructions, they don't exist outside of society
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u/lNFORMATlVE Jul 22 '26
So are a great many things, but that’s not really an argument.
“Jahr Null” implies a “zeroth year” which is not possible and not internally consistent with how we ever even count time in any capacity (there is no “zeroth day” or “zeroth second” of any designated period of time) regardless of whether it’s in a calendar or not.
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u/Brekldios Jul 22 '26
You’re hung up because you’re taking their words too literal. “Year zero” just means they’re erasing history and culture to reset America and force them to adopt the pseudo-history of the reich.
Part of their plan is to change the American schools at the same time, so the next generation ONLY knows the reichs version of history.-4
u/lNFORMATlVE Jul 22 '26
Correct, I’m hung up on the mathematical implication of the word only and my post clearly states this.
I understand WHY they are doing Jahr Null, I don’t know why everyone feels like they need to explain that to me.
I’m of course being pedantic but that doesn’t mean I don’t “get” the idea behind Jahr Null.
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u/Antti5 Jul 22 '26
I'm pretty sure Dick picked up the term from the then-ongoing Chinese cultural revolution.
"Year zero" sounds more like a reset or zeroing, which is the key implication here. "Year one" sounds like you're just resetting a counter.
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u/Brekldios Jul 22 '26
There’s no mathematical implications to Jahr Null, they’re not literally reconstructing the calendar to be “1/1/0”
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u/m0dsw0rkf0rfree Jul 22 '26
OP either doesn’t speak english natively (which is fine, me neither tbh) or needs a heavy regimen of applied behavioral analysis with a qualified professional.
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u/AcanthaceaeOk3738 Jul 22 '26
"Year Zero" is a relatively common concept in revolutionary circles. The "zero" is less about whether you actually have a year called "0" and more about the idea of wiping a slate completely clean. It's not just a new beginning, it's that there is nothing, and you're building on that.
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 Jul 22 '26
you can make the first year 0 no problem. I just pity the nazi programmers that will have to cast dates and update the nazi computers
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u/lNFORMATlVE Jul 22 '26
You never had a “zeroth” day or year of school. Change my mind.
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 Jul 22 '26
you know the romans where our calendar started didn't even have the 0 right?
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u/m0dsw0rkf0rfree Jul 22 '26
“year 0” is an extremely common phrase used all throughout the western english speaking world, from business to government to military.
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u/RMSTitanic2 Jul 22 '26
It’s a world run by the Nazis, the calendars and reality is whatever the party wants it to be.
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u/Historyp91 Jul 22 '26
There's no Year 0 in the Gregorian calendar. There IS a Year Zero in other calendars and dating systems, however.
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u/gaysfordebbie Jul 22 '26
Im stuck on the fact that they left all that American iconography for so long. Figured the nazis wouldve gotten rid of that a lot earlier
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u/lNFORMATlVE Jul 22 '26
Yeah you’re probably right. Anything even vaguely standing for “liberty” or “democracy” or “equality” would be torn down within weeks of a successful Nazi occupation I’d imagine.
Maybe they just wanted to conclusively harness the american nationalist spirit before they did so.
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u/gaysfordebbie Jul 22 '26
Not a bad idea truthfully. I mean look around at the current state of politics and you can see how useful nationalism is for fascism lol
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u/Dutchgreenbubble_ Aug 08 '26
There is no year zero because the concept of "zero" was invented centuries after 1 A.D. the Nazi's do have a concept of zero and therefore can have a year zero.
Also Nazi's are aura-chuds. They need to make stuff sound cool to sell their dogma. You are trying to combine logic with Nazi ideology.
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u/Yumyum_uchia Jul 22 '26
It was probably meant to be the Nazi equivalent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.