Charles Dickens in 2014:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of smart devices, it was the age of stupid hicks, it was the epoch of miracle drugs, it was the epoch of Ebola, it was the season of enlightened disbelievers, it was the season of beheadings, it was the spring of electric vehicles, it was the winter of global warming, we had obesity everywhere, we had poor becoming poorer, we were returning Earth to a pristine garden, we were destroying the Earth--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of political correctness only.