America On The Skids (NRR)
Rockadelic
Out Digging 13,993 Posts
In a country the size of America social and political change doesn't happen overnight.After reading countless posts here about dirty, crooked politicians, diminishing personal and civil rights, Big Brother, etc., etc.....which leads me to pose this question...WHAT 10-15 PERIOD OF AMERICAN HISTORY WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE COME BACK??? The Prohibition 20'sThe Dustbowl 30'sThe Lynching 40'sThe McCarthy 50'sThe Viet Nam 60'sThe Nixon 70'sThe Reagan 80'sWould love to know when you think America was better than it is today??
Comments
SLIPPERY SLOPES AHEAD
1987-2002.
heh heh heh. I know what you're thinking...
Sup dude!
I mean, the 20s sounded swell but it's not like I'd really know from experience.
But hell, I'd love to live in the 70s again. Sure, you had COINTELPRO and urban deindustrialization but shit, we live in the shadow of both today anyways.
Those were the days. Now you actually have to CONCENTRATE to earn 30-40% in a year! What a pain in the ass.
Hi Johnny!!
VOODOO ECONOMICS
There are no good old days. Thank you for pointing that out.
In the 90s in a lot of ways things were getting better, of course other things were getting worse, the 90s are when globilization was taking over, and intellectual property rights starting limiting progress.
Things have taken a very bad turn for the worse in the '00s. Iraq is not as bad as Viet Nam, The Patriot Act is not as bad as McCArthyism. In another 3 years, the republicans may have succeded in dismantiling the goverment as a body that can work for the good of the people. Clearly FEMA can no longer help disaster victims like it did in the past. Now with sky high deficits the dismantling of the social saftey net is on the way.
My parents truely benifited from the progress that was made in the 30s and 40s. My father went to school on the GI bill, bought a house on the GI bill. He worked a 40 hour week. Collected SS. Recieved Medicade. All the labor protections, and old age protections that were around for him are being dismantled.
I'm looking forward to the teens.
Dan
Kevin in March.
What Dan said...
With the exception of great music and cinema, the 70s were a disaster for America. This is the decade of massive social engineering like bussing, wage controls, price controls and all manner of public policy that exacerbates stagflation, or the rise of both inflation and unemployment. The Bronx becomes a war zone in part due to neglect and in part due to idiotic regulations that give slum lords an economic incentive to hire arsonists to burn down their buildings. The use of hard drugs like ludes, little red devils, angel dust and barbituates becomes somewhat socially acceptable. And such "mind expansion" is not limited to the universities or San Francisco, but the factory floor of GM and Ford. Partly as a result, American cars suck, as do American televisions and everything else. It was a great decade for earth tones and ponchos and other fashion statements best left unsaid. Police forces are scandalized when newspapers expose something close to torture in Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities. Khomeini takes over Iran, Soviets invade Afghanistan, Cubans send troops to Angola and America still supports Apartheid in South Africa. Wife swapping and sex clubs are popularized among the professional class. FBI catches five American lawmakers taking bribes from agents posing as Saudi sheikhs. More Americans are drawn to absurd cults like Hare Krishna and the moonies, who menace our airports unmolested. Jimmy Carter is elected president.
And yet in this environment of turmoil and malaise, Hip Hop is born, Funk is perfected, Jazz is expanded, Disco invented, Led Zepellin perfects rock music, we see the rise of great singer song writers, the careers of DeNiro and Pacino are launched, and even Genesis has a few good records.
Of all the insane shit you've laid down here, this is by far the most craze-a-licious.
This especially: The use of hard drugs like ludes, little red devils, angel dust and barbituates becomes somewhat socially acceptable. And such "mind expansion" is not limited to the universities or San Francisco, but the factory floor of GM and Ford. Partly as a result, American cars suck, as do American televisions and everything else.[/b]
The rise of drugs are responsible for substandard cars and appliances??
And this.....Led Zepellin perfects rock music[/b]
OY
I think I do...
Let's trade Vitamin for you know who. you know who annoys me.
You know, that guy, whatshisname...
Ohhh. I know who you're talking about. Yeah I hate that guy too.
Incorrecto oh great one. It is upon you, as the originator of the theory (which appears to have dropped out of your ass) to back it up with some facts. I did not suggest that drug use would not have effected productivity, but I did question your attribution of crappy cars and appliances to such drug use (when they are more likely attributable to unscrupulous, greedy industry cutting back on quality and moving production off-shore). What drugs were the makers of the Trabant and Yugo on???
That's the problem with Led Zeppelin. We were talking about cars and appliances...
That's what Im talkin' bout.
Goodnight everybody!
A) Zing! Nice one Sabadaba. Don't let the politburo get you down.
B) In the interest of common reason, I accede to funky man's basic point that hard drug use was not the only cause of shoddy production. But it is a point that I did not make. I said the drug use was a, not the, factor. And this point is supported because absences at major manufacturing plants rose significantly with the rise of hard drug use from workers. Also the outsourcing you mention did not happen in earnest until the 1980s and particularly after the passage of NAFTA.
man I would hate to see that again!
It's
haven't read that but David Harvey's thinking is always interesting and provocative.
his books on post-modernism and "Spaces of Hope" are both excellent.
Rich- can we defer the question and say that we'd rather travel back to the future?
i have a feeling that sabadabada = biff .
Ahh, the good old days.
The 70s were also the time that Blacks gained some equal employment. Equal housing as well. Women began to recieve some basic rights and title IX was passed (as a joke). The 70s saw a brief lull in America as an imperialistict expansionist power with the back lash to Viet Nam and the CIA in Chilie and other abuses of our military might. The 70s, under both Rs & Ds, saw the most significant weapons treaties and reductions the world has ever known. The 70s saw the end of the expansion of the nuclear power industry. The start of the enviormental movement and the ESA happened in the 70s. VISTA and CERTA trained thousands of American workers.
sadly many of the positive gains that came out of the 70s are now being reversed.
Does anyone else not see the great irony in the fact that what destroyed the American automobile industry was also what made listening to Zeppelin so popular?
BTW I kinda agree that Zep is perfect rock.
So, Led Zeppelin destroyed the US auto industry?