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I can only speak for myself. So why does Terrence correlate turning the clock back to 1950 with negating the progression of human rationale? Well because usually these nostalgic people just simply say I things like "I wish it was 1950 again." without prefacing that with "well only economically". They just wish it was 1950 and forget all the progress. So when I, Terrence, hear someone wishing it was 1950 I automatically think ALL of 1950 not just bits and pieces.
Also I am a black male from Georgia. Do I REALLY have to explain why I'm glad its not 1950?
Like someone else mentioned, I'm a middle class person. I live a relatively comfortable happy life. I do not think that I would be living a comfortable happy life in 1950 because of my race.
Yeah Louis CK got it right. I'm not stepping into a time machine set for 1950. No thanks! You try to get me in that time machine we're gonna fight! (joke)
I'm sorry but when I hear someone getting nostalgic for the 1950s my first thoughts are that this person is either a huge racist or just plain clueless about the struggles of minorities before the civil rights movement.
I think the better, less race focused conversation would start with: "Here are some positive aspects from the past that I wish we as a society could implement in the present."
This would allow for free flowing ideas and it would within the realm of reality. We will never go back to 1950. I think the uproar from certain recent incidents involving race proves that.
On a lighter note. I love my iphone, kindle, laptop, blu-ray DVD player with wi-fi connection, keyless entry on my car, flat screen HD TV, and of course my precious DVR.
So I ask all of those in favor of 1950:
What POSITIVE aspects of 1950 would you like to see implemented into 2012?
I would like abortion to be illegal.
I would like the nation to be mostly united against socialism.
I would like people to take marriage seriously and the majority of children to have both a mother and a father in the home
I would like families to not require both parents working simply to survive
I would like there to not be radical Islamists committing terrorist attacks on a regular basis throughout the world
I would like us to not be spending hundreds of billions of dollars more than we take in
I would like the schools, media, and Hollywood to not be used as tools for advancing political agendas
I would like there to be a sense of the future being bright and our best days being ahead of us not behind us
I would like hard work and responsibility to be valued
I would like kids to run and play outside instead of watching TV and playing video games
I would like the thought of smoking bans on private property, helmet and seatbelt laws, buisiness permits for running lemonade stands, restricting 2nd ammendment rights, banning salt in restaurants, and other nanny state laws to be thought of as absurd
I would like crime rates to be a fraction of what they are today
I would like it to be socially acceptable to have religious faith
I agree the 1980's were pretty good. We had the modern conveniences and the music and a healthy economy. But the thread is about the fifties. Lots of folks didn't even have indoor plumbing, much less air conditioning. Most adults smoked. Pollution was worse. The cars people are nostalgic about were much more dangerous. TV was black and white, if you were lucky you had five channels.
The more you talk about it, the more and more the 50's scare me. I'm not nostalgic about the cars you mention because I'm not into muscle cars.
I've seen this situation play out so many times from my and my wife's parents. They so completely swallow the American Way that they cannot see that it doesn't exist.
The general meme in the USA is that hard work and perseverance somehow pay off and then you get wealthy (or at least well off). Anyone informed can see this is a load of crap, but people who are uninformed and were in the right place at the right time still found themselves on the right side of the bubble, caught the good jobs and made money before globalization really got kicked off, etc. They don't make the connection that they were lucky. Their hard work and perseverance paid off, because that's the American Way (tm). Anyone who isn't well off must not be working hard enough, because it doesn't fit the narrative (and they believe the narrative is true).
So, ignorant boomer watched his house go up in price, cheered it on, and even when it crashed ended up above water because of his timing. It doesn't matter that the bubble just ruined his son, financially, because hard work and perseverance pay off! See, it worked for him, and he knows his son is a hard worker, so his son is going to be just fine because perseverance.
Never mind that literally every single thing about when he was his son's age is different now. His blue-collar job out of high school paid enough for him to buy a house five years later. His son is buried beneath student loan debt and now is underwater on a mortgage, and he makes less at his white-collar job than his father did, era-adjusted, at his manufacturing job.
I am 100% with you on this . There is no question that sprawl makes us dependent on the Middle East and it exacerbates the obesity problem.
In 1950, more people used mass transit or had only 1 car per household and were more likely to live in walkable neighborhoods.
It's no wonder as cars in the 50s were crap compared to what we have today. A washing machine cost a months wages and other appliances however poor they were by today's standard were also pricey A "big" screen (21 inch) black and white cost a small fortune...No affordable or practical air travel...Medicine still in the dark ages...Too many people had virtually no equality.....No, I think I'd rather stay in today's world, thank you.
Imagine the feelings you're gonna get when a black guy bangs your daughter.
I'm pretty sure I'll get that feeling no matter who bangs my daughter - but for now, I have a son, and like any proud daddy, hopefully he'll bang one of every race - variety and such...
IMO all the 50s accomplished is setting up the stage for the turbulent 60s and 70s. That's what you get for sweeping every freaking social problem under the rug I guess. The so called good old days of the 50s were not sustainable.
This comment is the most true of any on the thread.
No great societal shift ever happens in a vacuum- they are always a result of something that has gone rotten to the core in earlier times.
I grew up in the 50's- I went into the 1st grade in 1951 and graduated in 1962, just after the decade ended.
RPON's warm and fuzzies were not my recollections of those years. My family was intact and happy, but we were farmers, and our prosperity was not a constant- for as many years in the 50's as not, our farm mostly broke even, and was as subject to the ups and downs of the agricultural price swings as farms have been ever since. We did all right, but no better or worse than millions just like us.
Even though we did all right, there were a lot of people who never recovered from the Great Depression. They were all over, everywhere, and for them, the 60's were the times when some finally gained some stability in their lives for the first time since the 30's out here. I remember a lot of suicides among those folks back then, and we all knew families that were seemingly impoverished forever who were neighbors and friends.
While it's true that kids who got other kids pregnant got married- a couple of my friends were among them- really a lot of those marriages didn't last long after the baby came. The pressures on a young couple were just as great then as they are now, and the shame of divorce added an extra burden on both when they split up. Many of the marriages broke apart as soon as the responsibilities of parenting were over, and divorces back then were often very scarring to the couple and to their families.
The thing I remember most about that time was the deep, constant and persistent fear of a nuclear war with Russia. The fear was always present, even in rural Idaho, and often became paranoic during any brief flare up.
The Cold War wasn't cold when it came to this. The fear of Communism was the only reason we went into Viet Nam later, and went into Korea. It was the reason for the space race, and the reason why, after almost 30 years after Communism went bust as a political philosophy, it is still so feared here today.
We all lived in a constant low-grade state of worry. It was like having slow growing bone cancer in our society; at any time the worry could turn into brief terror and fear, then would always lapse back into worry again. Mutually assured destruction was a very un-assuring way to keep the peace. A policy of We die-You die did a lot of psychological damage to us all, and created a state of perpetual tension that was bound to blow up in other areas of our society eventually.
I would like abortion to be illegal. I'm no fan of abortion, but I still feel it is the woman's choice. It's between her, and our Creator. It's a choice that the woman has to live with for the rest of her life.
I would like the nation to be mostly united against socialism. I'm all for helping those truly in need, the elderly, the disabled, those who are stricken with life threatening diseases, and those who while trying and have fallen on hard times. It does happen. What I take issue it is those who abuse the system, as well as the corporate side of it with all of the bailouts. Why should reward those who made p*** poor business decisions, and then get bonuses with our taxpayer money?
I would like people to take marriage seriously and the majority of children to have both a mother and a father in the home I came from a divorced family, as did my wife. The good thing though, is my mom met my step dad soon after, and they've been married ever since. My mom and dad split up when I was 3, and my mom was remarried when I was 5, and still with that person to this day. He is more my dad, then my biological father. My wife's parents split up when she was a teenager. Still bad, but through her younger years she had both parents. Fortunately my wife and I are going on 12 years of marriage, and my son is benefiting from having a stable home life. We both work, but we do our best as parents. I know he has plenty of friends in school where the parents are split, and sharing custody, sharing duties of taking their kids to their ballgames, and I can only imagine how holidays can be a pain in the a**! But you're right, marriage is a committment, and and investment, and requires to be taken seriously. Too many people focus on throwing that big bash for their wedding day only to be divorced shortly after. It's only one day! What about the rest of your lives?
I would like families to not require both parents working simply to survive Unfortunately not possible. Plus my wife loves her job. Now there was a time where she was laid off and so she got to stay home with our son. I was also at one point in time without a job for 4 months, (2007) and played stay at home dad. It had it's perks for sure. I was out of work from January to mid May, and so I truly got to experience nature waking up from it's long Winter slumber. We spent a lot of time outside. The bad thing is, my self-esteem took such a hit, because it was the first time I hadn't been employed since I was 16! Thank God I DJ'd on the weekends, and sometimes on Thursday nights. In all honesty after 7 1/2 years with that company, and watching it go down the crapper (in which it was one of the banks that did) I took about a month to decompress and clear my head prior to job searching.
I would like there to not be radical Islamists committing terrorist attacks on a regular basis throughout the world Perhaps we should stop propping up all of those regimes in the Middle East, and stop meddling in everyone elses affairs. Furthermore, in 2012 why do we over 100 military bases world wide? We need to take care of ourselves, and our social issues at home, as well as generating jobs here!
I would like us to not be spending hundreds of billions of dollars more than we take in Agreed. Stop giving money to other countries as well. Where does all that food, and money go in places like Haiti?
I would like the schools, media, and Hollywood to not be used as tools for advancing political agendas I take Hollyweird for what it is; ENTERTAINMENT! That's it! Some of it is good, some of it sucks! Most of those actors are living in a fantasy land anyway! As for the media, I would like for them to report the news without being biased!
I would like there to be a sense of the future being bright and our best days being ahead of us not behind us I agree here. I worry that when my son enters the workforce that it will be worse than what we have now.
I would like hard work and responsibility to be valued Unfortunately a lot of people are allergic to personal responsibility in this country. It's never that person's fault. It's always somebody elses fault. Just like when somebody says "the customer is always right!" Bulls***! I work in a sales position, and I can tell you that more times than not "the customer isn't always right!" Too much "entitlement" today.
I would like kids to run and play outside instead of watching TV and playing video games My son watches his fair shair of cartoons, and plays the Wii from time to time, but he is extremely active. He is again playing baseball this year, and more than likely playing football in the fall. And by active I mean ACTIVE. He'll be 9 tomorrow, and he has had 1 speed since he has learned to walk, and that's RUN! I would love to take his energy and bottle it up and sell it if I could.
I would like the thought of smoking bans on private property, helmet and seatbelt laws, buisiness permits for running lemonade stands, restricting 2nd ammendment rights, banning salt in restaurants, and other nanny state laws to be thought of as absurd I would also hope then that you support ending the "war on drugs" and especially ending the incarceration of those who possess a God given plant! Furthermore, when has a "war" on anything worked? I would also hope that you would support getting the government out of the marriage business, and out of everyone's bedrooms. As a smoker too this strikes a nerve with me, because a private business owner should make it HIS/HER decision as to whether or not to allow smoking. A simple sign at the door "Smoking allowed, enter at your own risk" should solve the issue. Don't smoke, don't like it, don't enter. Simple!
I would like crime rates to be a fraction of what they are today Ceasing locking up non-violent offenders such as drug possession (especially pot) would go a long way in reducing crime and reducing prison populations. Go after the real criminals, murderers, rapists, child molesters, scammers ect... The problem is we're getting dangerously close to being a police state. Almost anything can be criminalized today.
I would like it to be socially acceptable to have religious faith I don't have to much of an issue with this since I believe in God. I look at it this way. Nothing infuriates me more than the "my God is better than your God" crap! Whether you're one of the many versions of Christianity, or Jewish, or Islam, God is still God! What I take issue with is the religous nut jobs who preach damnation, and everyone is going to Hell, blah blah blah! Other than that, I agree... nothing wrong with a little God in your life.
I responded in blue.
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. There is no question that sprawl makes us dependent on the Middle East and it exacerbates the obesity problem.
The bad thing is, my self-esteem took such a hit, because it was the first time I hadn't been employed since I was 16! Thank God I DJ'd on the weekends, and sometimes on Thursday nights.
