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If a white person from the 1950s came to the present, and saw the rampant criminality in the black underclass, and saw the burned-out remains of once prosperous cities, and heard the lyrics to all too many rap songs, and saw BLM protest marches, and saw how black criminals are put on a pedestal by the media, they would go back to their time and become arch segregationists.
Really?
I would hope they might be a bit more introspective and realize it was a mistake not to end segregation and the other vestiges of slavery long before that finally happened.
There is cause and effect in this world. I do not justify harming others or destroying property, but the failure to deal effectively with the whole civil rights issue for blacks is what is behind most of the problems we see today.
The origins of the problems many blacks are having with police today have to do with the fact that police have historically been more aggressive in enforcing the law in black communities than in white ones.
I started kindergarten in 1951 and I'm still here so I've seen it all from then to now. Today's technology is great. Kids are still kids, people are still people. I was fortunate to be born when I was. I got a great public education for close to nothing. I had a great job due to computers that hadn't even been invented when I graduated college. My life was saved by medicines that didn't exist in the 1950's. I'm spending my time creating a post on CD instead of sitting in a rocking chair on the porch.
I lease a new car every three years that needs no maintenance and if it should need a repair, it's done for free and I get a loaner car for free. I can contact anyone with email instantly anywhere in the world. My last 18 months of work before I retired was done from home, online. I could get out of bed 5 minutes before work started and log on in my underwear. I don't have to balance my checking account, online banking does it for me.
Culturally I have seen great improvements as well. We no longer have a draft like we did when I graduated college. Unwed mothers are no longer expected to hide away out of town or give up their babies. Men can no longer beat up their wives and get away with it. Minorities have a path to education and good jobs like the rest of us. In most workplaces, sexual harassment is no longer tolerated. People are free to choose their own religion or lack of it without being discriminated against because of it. Gay people are free to show their love and marry.
To quote lyrics written in 1931, 90 years ago:
You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny
it's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.
If a white person from the 1950s came to the present, and saw the rampant criminality in the black underclass, and saw the burned-out remains of once prosperous cities, and heard the lyrics to all too many rap songs, and saw BLM protest marches, and saw how black criminals are put on a pedestal by the media, they would go back to their time and become arch segregationists.
Ah yes back in the day when those people were put in their place. Is it fair to say you’re wildly exaggerating?
I am 88,married in 1955,I will take that time of life any time over the mess we have now,with it getting worse day by day.Marriage meant something along with family,no cohabitation.
My pay was $1.00 per hour,Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance $2.50 for family,good coverage,used cars $50.
There was no credit cards,everything cash or 20 percent down.A new vehicle $1200 etc.
People were more civilized and respectful and not settled with a gun.
Vacations much more pleasurable.I could go on and on,did lose my mom at age 2 and dad at age 5 which left a family of 5 under 20 years old but we survived and excelled.
As I recall from living with my grandparents in the late 1940s and early 50s, people lived within walking distance of work or near public transit so they could get there. Supermarkets and big box stores didn't exist either, you shopped at the Butcher, Produce Market, Bakery or Farmers Market all oof which you walked to. Coal and Ice were regular deliveries and the lamplighter lit the streetlights. This was in Philadelphia. When I moved to San Francisco in 1992 I was thrown back into that world and loved it. The only time I used my vehicle was for travel. Oh and there was no TV until a few years into the 50s so outings to the movies came once or twice a week
When I worked in the East Bay back in the late 80s I was a young college intern at a major lab. A senior machinist gave a long diatribe about his career and how the place was corrupted. I was impresed with his experience. At one point, he started talking about racism in the 1950s. I still remember this:
"Back in the 50s when no one would even talk to a black person I let them into the machine shop to work".
In Nebraska there were whites who would get drunk and start talking about going to the Dakotas "to shoot all them r-dskins".
The guy was a Navy-trained machinist and very elite at his work. But I couldn't help but notice how racist the 1950s had been by the way he talked about it. As for me, I am brown and indigenous from AZ - a Gen X guy.
The one positive thing about the 1950s was that they didn't have Autotune back then, so the vocal talent was generally much better since the music studios couldn't use computers to make bad voices sound good like they do now.
Has there ever been a generation in this country or elsewhere that didn’t look unfavorably on the the newer generation? Each generation embraces particular social, moral and political values and see them as the touch stone of their existence. It’s human nature that when things change and values are different they must be bad.
Has there ever been a generation in this country or elsewhere that didn’t look unfavorably on the the newer generation? Each generation embraces particular social, moral and political values and see them as the touch stone of their existence. It’s human nature that when things change and values are different they must be bad.
That’s been true for ages. What many boomers complaining about the ‘good ole days’ fail to realize, is that back in the 60s, they were the outcasts. All one has to do is rewind the clock, and they’ll go back to a time when Elvis and The Beatles were viewed as satanic music, promoting disharmony in society.
I am 88,married in 1955,I will take that time of life any time over the mess we have now,with it getting worse day by day.Marriage meant something along with family,no cohabitation.
My pay was $1.00 per hour,Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance $2.50 for family,good coverage,used cars $50.
There was no credit cards,everything cash or 20 percent down.A new vehicle $1200 etc.
People were more civilized and respectful and not settled with a gun.
Vacations much more pleasurable.I could go on and on,did lose my mom at age 2 and dad at age 5 which left a family of 5 under 20 years old but we survived and excelled.
$1200 would get a low-end new vehicle in 1955. Of course, today's average income is more than 10x what it was in 1955. It is also necessary to compare what 'new vehicle' meant in 1955 compared to 2021. In the fifties, it meant something that had a life expectancy of ~100,000 miles, on average. Today, it means something that will go about twice as far - again, on average. The creature comforts - the smooth ride, the climate control, the sound system, the comfortable seats and other ergonomic aspects - are incomparable. And today's ride is much, much safer.
More civilized? The homicide rate for 2019 (the most recent year for full available data) was 5.0/100,000. In 1959 it was 4.9/100,000.
As to marriage, what did it mean that it does not today? You see, you've touched upon an interesting aspect of the 1950s compared to the 2020s. Bob and Jane want to cohabitate. They can. It's their decision. But in the fifties, it wasn't their decision. It was the decision of the states, most of which prohibited the practice. Enforcement was sporadic, but it was unlawful. Furthermore, the prohibition was widely enforced by social action; landlords would typical refuse to rent to cohabiting couples, and such sanctions as ostracization and refusal of employment (if an employer or potential employer became aware of the cohabiting). In modern parlance, it was politically incorrect to live together before marriage. It should be noted that census figures from 1960 show 439,000 cohabiting couples. It happened - just on a far less frequent basis than today. So you're wrong to claim that there was 'no cohabitation'. But it went beyond that. If Bob was black and Mary was white, it was unlawful in many states for them to marry, and even where legal they would likely face social problems of the sort I've already described. And if it was Bob and Bill or Jane and Mary? Again, the government and society knew better than Bob/Bill/Jane/Mary with whom they should be in a relationship. Remember further that in the 1950s, some states still prohibited the use and sale of birth control. Again, the government knew better than Bob and Jane as to their sex life.
I must also mention that in the 1950s, marriage meant the right of a husband in all 48 (50 beginning in 1959) states to rape his wife. Legally, it wasn't rape, after all; he was just exercising one of the 'rights' of marriage.
Today, Americans are much more free to chose the person with whom they want to be in a relationship, and how they want to be in a relationship with that person. And some people hate that. They regret that that freedom ever came about. They prefer the 'good old days' when the government and social coercion forced people into only the sorts of relationships deemed acceptable.
I have a fantasy sometimes. I was 2 in 1950 and my parents were 31 and 32, but I would like to go back to about 1965, and show them some of the favorite movies of my generation.
Can you imagine trying to explain movies like, Forrest Gump, or True Lies, or even something like Legally Blonde? It would be fun.
I think it can’t be argued that the 1950s were a lot simpler than now. There was such a post war hopefulness then.
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