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OP, some of the people who have idolized the 50's on this forum have been incels who were born long after that era, and who think that it was a time when every man of decent standing in society was issued a wife, guaranteed. They want to get back to an era, when all a guy had to do to attract a wife was make at least a modest living. None of these guys, though, has ever shown any awareness of the fact, that back then, they'd be expected to support the wife, and the eventually resulting kids.
Anyway, the point is, there's a contingent of men out there, who have a completely unrealistic view of the 50's, based on their own personal issues. They're active enough on the internet, that they can give the impression there's a significant trend toward nostalgia for the 50's. Some of this also may be politically driven by a family-values crowd, that's unhappy with the easier divorce laws of today, and other societal changes, like the rise of policies that are inclusive of once-marginalized populations.
I don't know anyone in real life, who idolizes the 50's. Do you know anyone who does? I wonder if this is mostly an internet phenomenon. Here on C-D, it has been far from "many" who hold a candle to the 50's. It's been a fairly rare, occasional single voice.
I don't know about "idolize" but there's certainly someone on this thread who obsesses about the 1950s. He even puts events that happened in other decades in that decade. Kind of like someone the other day who called JFK a Baby Boomer.
The people BORN in the 50's are much too young; can't have much perspective at age 3.
We had these things called "parents", adults who had raised us during the 1950s and later told us all about them, and compared them to later times as they got into their 50s, and then 60s, and then 70s.
We even listened to our grandparents sometimes.
I know that my parents preferred pre 1970 America to post 1970 America.
Education was not uniform in the 1950's. In VA, African Americans attended segregated schools and could not in most localities get a 12 year high school diploma. Rather, they got a 10 year "certificate." That is if their schools were not shut down to avoid integration (Warren, Prince Edward, Charlottesville, Norfolk &c.) Even after the Brown decision, schools were segregated. I remember there were only two African American students in my school - the school could then claim it was integrated - but even then parents objected and the two were sent to older schools; we got new text books, they got the old ones.
And of course, there was "Black Wednesday." African Americans could only go to the banks on Wednesday in some localites; in many localities, banking days were regulated, just like entrances. In Richmond for example, the two major department stores were Miller & Rhodes and Thalhimers; whites entered via Grace Street, African Americans via Broad Street, entrance via 6th was for both races.
And in VA it was not as bad as further south where the social structure was enforced more openly through violence.
People can talk about how bad it was for black people in the 1950s, and they are right with the discrimination on it, yet the difference then is they would very likely have a mum and dad. Yet today a majority of blacks are raised by a single mother.
Yes, there has been a lot of progression and equality and opportunities and blacks are no longer treated like second class citizens, yet at the same time there been the opposite, especially with the ever-increasing single mothers.
Yet another way society has not progressed is mass shootings in schools happens several times a year in the USA, but it never happened in the 1950s.
In some ways some things have gone horribly today compared to the 1950s, but at the same time there been a lot of improvements.
One of the biggest differences between now and then is while today very small families (less than 2 children, if any at all) and helicopter parents predominate, it was a free-for-all of large fertile families that lasted into the early 1970s when this country was overwhelmed with children. Nearly every household had 3,4 or more children, streets were always full of mobs of children at all hours, teenagers in large groups roamed and hung out on city street corners, schools were ridiculously overcrowded, homes and bedrooms were overcrowded. Children were free-range nearly as soon as they could walk, no hovering parents. Even though most households had 2 parents, parent involvement in children's activities was minimal, if there was any involvement at all. There was a lot of violence taken for granted, fights at school with bruising and black eyes, physical abuse and bullying, gang violence by teenagers, beating of children by parents, beatings by school staff of students (beyond paddling), and these things happened nearly every day.
It was not a "safer" time for kids by today's standards. Where drugs were fewer in the 50s and 60s, there still was alcohol. Cigarettes were less concerning at the time, and 9 year old smokers were on playgrounds after school. Parental and sexual abuse was hidden, often done by alcoholic parents and covered up and not spoken of. Teenage pregnancies were much more prevalent, most hidden and given up for adoption or covered up by the grandparent or close relative raising the baby as their own. No unmarried girls or women raised their own children.
I was a child of the 60s and 70s, but my siblings were born in the 40s and 50s, so I'm speaking based on my and their experiences in the neighborhood and at school. I used to assume that the 50s were a "safer" decade than the 60s and 70s I experienced, but their stories and experiences weren't much different than mine for the most part. The biggest difference by the 70s, though, was the greater prevalence of drugs, and a growing number of single parent households that continued to grow.
My mother would cringe whenever she heard the phrase "good old days" and she would always insist upon hearing it that there was no such thing, and that "today" was always the best of days. I'm sure that was her perception in the 50s also, as it was to be in the following decades.
There was definitely mental illness back then! But it was hidden for the most part, kept hush-hush, swept under the carpet in families, which meant some children were raised by at least one parent who had undiagnosed mental illness. People experienced childhood trauma and simply lived with the consequences, no even understanding, that unresolved trauma was at the root of their "moods" and was the cause of dysfunction in the family. The ability of the mental health care profession back then to treat trauma was non-existent. Unresolved trauma leads to personality disorders, depression, and in some cases, more serious mental illness. Lobotomies were the standard of practice for some patients with serious mental illness, as well as for women diagnosed with "hysteria".
Worked at the state mental facility in the 1990s. Was able to access the archives at that time. In the 1990s we had about 350 people on the campus. About 100 of them lived there and the other 250 rotated out (and back in of course). What was stunning is that in the 1950s the place had about 3K living there and had had up to 7K living there during it's history since it's founding.
We had empty/abandoned living quarters throughout the large campus. We got to see the old "Rubber Rooms" covered in acoustic tile replete with dents from pounding fists. We even found abandoned records of some of our older patients who had been young then. Still demonstrating some of the same behaviors as they did as elderly folks.
We had an abandoned farm and dairy on the property. A graveyard. It was its own self contained city at one point.
The 50’s were trash and anyone who longs for the “good old days” is a racist POS. Period.
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