What were the 1980s like compared to the 1970s? Unrelated to my last question, of all the decades you have experienced, which decade was the best/peak decade overall, in your opinion (and a little about why)?
The 1980s in my eyes was a stable, distinct decade but cynical and kind of drifting back in terms of society (the start of the war on counterculture, the hippies had cut off their hair, were born again Christians and advocating against drugs now). On the other hand the 1970s felt like a continuation of the 1960s - counterculture, chaotic, felt like we were headed to greener pastures. 1990s was in my opinion the peak of modern US and the last great American decade. End of the Cold War (the fear of nuclear war was real), the dawn of global technology, kept the good parts of the 1980s while getting rid or improving the bad parts. It all ended with 9/11. That was a societal shift that we never recovered from.
Lots of millennials & outside of the US feel the same. Especially seeing the effects of modern tech on societies too I yearn for simpler times. It’s sad because you’d think they’d solve so many of our problems, make us globally more informed, but the opposite kinda happened. Everyone’s in their own disinformation safe space / bubble and radicalizes themselves further, causing everyone to just drift further and further apart. Class clown type people become annoying menaces and stream to a clout of equally annoying people, further reinforcing their behavior and pushing them to become more and more extreme for their perverse entertainment. Everyone throws a camera in people’s faces the moment they feel like it. Institutions push for more and more mass surveillance methods and idiots feed the same models through TicTok, Instagram and other superficial media.
I feel you on 9/11 killing the post Cold War honeymoon. I was a kid when it happened and it really felt like the death of my childhood innocence in a lot of ways.
What’s weird is looking back on it, most of the fears were hysteria.
I think the biggest real impacts on American lives (aside from having to think about/discuss the war) were increased security at airports and increased gas prices.
Looking back, it’s incredible how little effect the attack and war had on Americans who didn’t let it affect them.
If information and discussion was as easily accessible as it is now, perhaps people would not have been so afraid of what they did not know then.
What were the 1980s like compared to the 1970s? Unrelated to my last question, of all the decades you have experienced, which decade was the best/peak decade overall, in your opinion (and a little about why)?
The 1980s in my eyes was a stable, distinct decade but cynical and kind of drifting back in terms of society (the start of the war on counterculture, the hippies had cut off their hair, were born again Christians and advocating against drugs now). On the other hand the 1970s felt like a continuation of the 1960s - counterculture, chaotic, felt like we were headed to greener pastures. 1990s was in my opinion the peak of modern US and the last great American decade. End of the Cold War (the fear of nuclear war was real), the dawn of global technology, kept the good parts of the 1980s while getting rid or improving the bad parts. It all ended with 9/11. That was a societal shift that we never recovered from.
Interesting.
I’m 20-years younger but felt the exact same about those decades! The 90s was indeed the peak and 9/11 beginning of the end.
Lots of millennials & outside of the US feel the same. Especially seeing the effects of modern tech on societies too I yearn for simpler times. It’s sad because you’d think they’d solve so many of our problems, make us globally more informed, but the opposite kinda happened. Everyone’s in their own disinformation safe space / bubble and radicalizes themselves further, causing everyone to just drift further and further apart. Class clown type people become annoying menaces and stream to a clout of equally annoying people, further reinforcing their behavior and pushing them to become more and more extreme for their perverse entertainment. Everyone throws a camera in people’s faces the moment they feel like it. Institutions push for more and more mass surveillance methods and idiots feed the same models through TicTok, Instagram and other superficial media.
I feel you on 9/11 killing the post Cold War honeymoon. I was a kid when it happened and it really felt like the death of my childhood innocence in a lot of ways.
What’s weird is looking back on it, most of the fears were hysteria.
I think the biggest real impacts on American lives (aside from having to think about/discuss the war) were increased security at airports and increased gas prices.
Looking back, it’s incredible how little effect the attack and war had on Americans who didn’t let it affect them.
If information and discussion was as easily accessible as it is now, perhaps people would not have been so afraid of what they did not know then.