Ok, so some things in the golden era were not too cool...

[LizzieMaine]

As I said in my post, I was not referring to posessions, toys and large homes. I am referring to the fact that people have decent incomes, good health and live in a safe society.

I'm finding it a lot less safe than it was just a few years ago. Two weeks ago police raided a major drug-manufacturing lab just three houses up the street from me. Last year, a man in the next block was beaten senseless in his living room by a drug-crazed home invader. Last summer, I saw two men high on some vile concoction or other beat an animal to death in the middle of Main Street. Several years ago, my next-door neighbor was carried out of his house in a body bag after a drug deal gone wrong.

This is a small town of less than 8000 people. When I was growing up, we literally didn't worry about locking our doors. Now I lock my doors and own a gun. If this is the kind of stuff happening in a place like this, I pity you folks who live in the big cities.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The biggest difference I see from when I was a tike is people used to be proud to be American and proud of America whatever faults it has ( like putting a guy juggling a baby on a skyscraper in a newsreel), ...

I remember a saying from my childhood: "My country, right or wrong."

I always felt it sounded better as: "My country, righting wrongs."

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'm finding it a lot less safe than it was just a few years ago. Two weeks ago police raided a major drug-manufacturing lab just three houses up the street from me. Last year, a man in the next block was beaten senseless in his living room by a drug-crazed home invader. Last summer, I saw two men high on some vile concoction or other beat an animal to death in the middle of Main Street. Several years ago, my next-door neighbor was carried out of his house in a body bag after a drug deal gone wrong.

This is a small town of less than 8000 people. When I was growing up, we literally didn't worry about locking our doors. Now I lock my doors and own a gun. If this is the kind of stuff happening in a place like this, I pity you folks who live in the big cities.

So so much of this --all over the U.S.-- has to do with our country's drug culture, which has permeated every race, age, and socioeconomic group. Americans are such massive consumers of illegal drugs that a whole country (Mexico) has violently converted itself into one giant supplier.

 

[LizzieMaine]

So so much of this --all over the U.S.-- has to do with our country's drug culture, which has permeated every race, age, and socioeconomic group. Americans are such massive consumers of illegal drugs that a whole country (Mexico) has violently converted itself into one giant supplier.

And if things in the Modern World are so ducky, one wonders just why people feel the desperate need to thus numb themselves. Some call it progress, but I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.

 

[Angus Forbes]

What a destructive thread. I personally find it to be very rude and offensive.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

What a destructive thread. I personally find it to be very rude and offensive.

Ever heard of the phoenix myth? Or perhaps "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" would be more apropos.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Yeah, there is kind of a dystopian theme, I'll give you that.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Ever heard of the phoenix story?

Of course I have. There is no need to be insulting.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Of course I have. There is no need to be insulting.

What's insulting about this question? How could I know for certain whether you had or not -- without asking first?

 

[Angus Forbes]

I'm sorry, Marc. As I said, I find this thread and topic to be offensive. In my opinion, it is nothing beyond thinly-veiled politics, and I have very little patience for a rehash of the supposed sins of White males in bygone times. In general, the Lounge has done a good job in minimizing this kind of rubbish, and I hope it continues to do so.

 

[sheeplady]

I can't "time warp" my city back to the Golden Age. Even if it was better than today; even if it was worse. Even if it's such a mixed bag that it is a draw between the two. The one thing I can do though is try to direct my energy to making now and the future better than what it currently is.

The only thing that seems reasonable to me is trying to figure out what aspects of life was better then than now and what caused that difference. Then it's my job to work to make those things happen and integrate them with modern life.

 

[DNO]

I'm finding it a lot less safe than it was just a few years ago. Two weeks ago police raided a major drug-manufacturing lab just three houses up the street from me. Last year, a man in the next block was beaten senseless in his living room by a drug-crazed home invader. Last summer, I saw two men high on some vile concoction or other beat an animal to death in the middle of Main Street. Several years ago, my next-door neighbor was carried out of his house in a body bag after a drug deal gone wrong.

This is a small town of less than 8000 people. When I was growing up, we literally didn't worry about locking our doors. Now I lock my doors and own a gun. If this is the kind of stuff happening in a place like this, I pity you folks who live in the big cities.

Don't feel too bad for us city-slickers. I've lived in the same neighbourhood for 60 years...an ordinary, lower middle class area... and I've never had any of those things happen...nothing even close. These things do happen, of course, but nowhere near my neighbourhood. In addition I've always felt perfectly safe, any time of the day or night, in my large city. I don't know if this is unusual, but it isn't odd for Toronto.

To have these sort of things happening in a town of 8,000 must be frightening.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'm sorry, Marc. As I said, I find this thread and topic to be offensive. In my opinion, it is nothing beyond thinly-veiled politics, and I have very little patience for a rehash of the supposed sins of White males in bygone times. In general, the Lounge has done a good job in minimizing this kind of rubbish, and I hope it continues to do so.

Read and understood. As a fellow Old Boy who also studied Latin in school, I will stand back and obsta principiis vacuus oleum addere camino. (My Latin is rusty.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ever heard of the phoenix myth? Or perhaps "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" would be more apropos.

To say nothing of that fine recent documentary "Idiocracy."

Personally, I find the fact that such conditions as have been described actually exist to be far more offensive than the discussion of them. I'm offended that I can't walk home alone at night. I'm offended that the public discourse has been hijacked by cable-TV know-nothings who'd make Father Coughlin blush. I'm offended that I can't stand in a grocery store checkout line without seeing the greasy sex lives of ten-cent celebrities flung at me from every magazine cover. I'm offended that everything I see for sale in my friendly hometown big-box store is made by slave labor in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China while Americans flip burgers for a living. And I dare say if one *isn't* offended by such things, they aren't paying close enough attention.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

To say nothing of that fine recent documentary "Idiocracy."

"Documentary" being the operating word here.

 

[Angus Forbes]

I'm offended that I can't walk home alone at night. I'm offended that the public discourse has been hijacked by cable-TV know-nothings who'd make Father Coughlin blush. I'm offended that I can't stand in a grocery store checkout line without seeing the greasy sex lives of ten-cent celebrities flung at me from every magazine cover. I'm offended that everything I see for sale in my friendly hometown big-box store is made by slave labor in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China while Americans flip burgers for a living. And I dare say if one *isn't* offended by such things, they aren't paying close enough attention.

I share your sentiments, entirely.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

To say nothing of that fine recent documentary "Idiocracy."

Personally, I find the fact that such conditions as have been described actually exist to be far more offensive than the discussion of them. I'm offended that I can't walk home alone at night. I'm offended that the public discourse has been hijacked by cable-TV know-nothings who'd make Father Coughlin blush. I'm offended that I can't stand in a grocery store checkout line without seeing the greasy sex lives of ten-cent celebrities flung at me from every magazine cover. I'm offended that everything I see for sale in my friendly hometown big-box store is made by slave labor in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China while Americans flip burgers for a living. And I dare say if one *isn't* offended by such things, they aren't paying close enough attention.

I understand this feeling. Living in Chile in 1998 was, in many ways, like living in the 1950s-era United States -- at least for someone in my demographic. That's not to glorify Chile's (awful) recent past or messy present; I'm just saying that I got a taste of a world not yet consumed by consumption, irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies, celebrity mania, and a race toward the bottom of the pop cultural barrel. And frankly, there was a lot of good in that.


Unfortunately, urban Chile is now trying (all-too-succesfully) to remake itself as a little United States, complete with Kardashian worship...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

^^
We don't have heroes anymore, just "celebrities."

 

[Lady Day]

We have heroes, they just don't get 'celebrity' recognition.

LD

 

[hatophile]

We have heroes, they just don't get 'celebrity' recognition.

LD

Well said!