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Please share which posters and posts indicate a lack of happiness with their life now. Hopefully not me. I am more than happy with my life and current affluent status. I am however cognizant about history and its overall consequences. You are happy in Wyoming after fleeing Chicago and I am happy you are in Wyoming. So we are both happy for each other.
No, not you : I don't think your heart rate and blood pressure shoot up when you post. However, there are some others who seem positively apoplectic.
We all felt better about ourselves and our country then. And perception is everything.
If people didn't have all that they wanted it was still a time of optimism and growth. A good education was still cheap and accessible. We were producing some of the world's most educated students. People could see opportunity on the horizon. Again, perception creates anticipation of satisfaction.
I'm thinking for those who are arguing the OP, if the "good old days" were so much worse than now why is it we have so many angry, complaining people now? A higher rate of suicide? A higher rate of depression/mental illness?
If things have improved so much why aren't we all happy, satisfied people?
This is something I wouldn't even consider arguing with someone younger than I because I was there and they read it in a book. LOL. I lived it then and I'm living it now and there's no comparison in the amount of dissatisfaction I hear today.
Maybe people today haven't learned how to be happy with their lives?
On the one hand, a number of issues with polluting the environment, discrimination and general social concerns, have been if not remedied, mitigated. On the other hand, macro economic issues have reduced the ability to gain middle income standing. The two arenas can be worked independently. In fact, working on the latter would make the former go even better. When the pie is shrinking, politicians and others in power have a nasty tendency to pit people against each other, creating entirely new cycles of unfairness and discrimination.
I once saw a girl about eighteen or nineteen working on a garbage truck. I don't consider that to be progress.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly
Well, she does. She's happy to work in a union job, and to get paid more than peanuts. It beats retail, food service, etc.
Ha! This is too funny! I wanted to be a 'garbage man' when I grew up. I liked the idea of hanging onto the back of the truck and jumping on and off to pick up the trash, and just to be outside all the time.
I was crushed, CRUSHED when I realized that I would not be able to do that just because I was female. I still remember how that felt, even though it was 55 years ago.
There where many aspects of society back the that were positive.
Someone will always be along to bring up race because you know, racists talk about race.
The first sentence: yes, there were. The second sentence: the reverse is true. Racists talk about minorities in contemptuous language. People who are trying NOT to be racist talk about race. Big fat difference.
The fact that you think that last sentence of yours is true, is an example of racism, by the way.
Hard to believe this video was made the same year as The Summer of Love.
I've never seen such a video but it's sad "manners" and "thoughtfulness" had to explained to young people or any person for that matter.
As a female, I have felt discriminated against but I attributed it to my vision issues rather than being female. I do remember a couple of times where women were treated differently than men.
Ha ha, yeah. Now we know why. Anyone remember wearing white gloves to town and church?
On the one hand, a number of issues with polluting the environment, discrimination and general social concerns, have been if not remedied, mitigated. On the other hand, macro economic issues have reduced the ability to gain middle income standing. The two arenas can be worked independently. In fact, working on the latter would make the former go even better. When the pie is shrinking, politicians and others in power have a nasty tendency to pit people against each other, creating entirely new cycles of unfairness and discrimination.
What's ironic about this statement to me is that Southern MN had fresh air all of my life. Now for the last ten years we have summer days during which people are warned about going outside. (I live in a valley town.) That's a shocker. So progress is in the eye of the beholder.
And what about suicide and mental illness? Politicians and not belonging to a certain economic class are making people ill? I'm not sure about that.
We have a veritable epidemic of chemical dependency and mental illness in this country and the numbers are still rising nearly exponentially. To me, those aren't the fruits of a society that is moving in a positive direction. In fact it's downright destructive in spite of all the materialistic improvements.
This film was made in 1967, not 1957. By then, a great deal had changed: integration was the law of the land (public schools had been ordered to integrate ten years previously), separate water fountains and restrooms were no more, segregated lunch counters were fast disappearing (not without a struggle in many places) and the Civil Rights movement was in full sway. The women's movement was heating up as baby boomer women began to enter the workplace, and it was the Summer of Love.
Viet Nam was heating up, too...as was the antiwar movement.
1967 was an exciting, volatile time in which to be young.
New cars had lap belts (I drove a '67 Chevy II for many years).
Women could find work - perhaps not as well-paid work as most men's jobs, but it was still available, though college girls were often steered towards teaching, library science, nursing, and other "traditional" women's professions. Still - there were female doctors, lawyers, elected officials, engineers, scientists, and so on. Many were my classmates.
The "brunette" (didn't the poor young woman have a name? She is totally defined by her hair color in this video) certainly could have found work which would have paid enough to support her reasonably comfortably. Of course, the health insurance which accompanied it may not have paid for maternity costs for female employees - only the wives of male employees were covered, under some policies of prominent insurance companies. Single, widowed, or divorced mom? Too bad; you're out of luck. ...
Saved me some typing. I went to school with some black kids. They didn't live in a certain section of town, though none of them were very well off.
My mom started working in the '50s. Quite a few women in my town did. I remember the female guard at the county prison when my scout troop toured the place. Huh? There were a couple of women locked up there. Makes sense.
My father's 1963 Chevy had lap belts in front and nothing in the back. The kiddies were apparently expendable.
What's ironic about this statement to me is that Southern MN had fresh air all of my life. Now for the last ten years we have summer days during which people are warned about going outside. (I live in a valley town.) That's a shocker. So progress is in the eye of the beholder.
And what about suicide and mental illness? Politicians and not belonging to a certain economic class are making people ill? I'm not sure about that.
We have a veritable epidemic of chemical dependency and mental illness in this country and the numbers are still rising nearly exponentially. To me, those aren't the fruits of a society that is moving in a positive direction. In fact it's downright destructive in spite of all the materialistic improvements.
Not sure why you have that in MN...take Denver, in 1980, smog was horrible, yet today, with a huge increase in industry and population, not as bad....though maybe the airport moved out to the boonies helped. Compare the Hudson River then to now?? Fuggetaboutit!!
Casual Drug use in general is way more than it was in the 60s and 70s; it's a lot cheaper, there are more sources and types. And the financial gap and size of the demographics between haves and have nots is MUCH larger. More suicide and feelings of despair. Mental illness? One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest vs today?? More stuff is in your face thanks to multiple news and media outlets vs years ago, when a magazine with artcles written months before were your main source
Drugs and the multiplier of upper management salaries compared to workers are two major things that are worse today by far than back then, IMHO.
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: I don't think your heart rate and blood pressure shoot up when you post. However, there are some others who seem positively apoplectic.
