[Atlantean_Relic]

Has life as we know it always had so many guns aimed at it?? I kind of like some perspective here.

[bobaloo]

Pretty much.

I remember hiding under desks to protect against A-bombs. As a young teenager I remember sitting around with my friends making plans for where to bug out to for when the nukes started falling. The war in VietNam was going on, friends were being hauled half way around the world and coming back in body bags left and right, or disappearing forever in the frozen north.

The funny thing was though, we did have optimism. We thought the world could change, and we could have a part in changing it for the better. The difference today is that the optimism is gone. Even kids know they're screwed, at least the smart ones, and they see that nothing they do is going to make a difference in the big picture. That's the part I feel sorry for them about.

[LX1]

the world is changing for the worse, and it sucks. i hope that somehow we can come together and stop all the bickering, bitterness and hate and see that we're all the same, living life, just trying to be happy......

[LX1]

i think i sound like a hippie

[seahorse]

I'm 41, I think the 90s were pretty optimistic. The cold war was over, or so we thought, the US cut the size of its military forces and military spending, tech stocks were booming which was the result of a different view of the future.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pup55', ' ')Now, I think there is a substantial portion of the population that actually thinks things are doing just fine right now, and are content mainly to watch Survivor and not expend any energy.

[rockdoc123]

I think a lot of your perspective ends up related to where you were. Without global news services, TV that was normally only turned on for Ed Sullivan and the like, your perspective on how bad or good things might be globally was pretty myoptic. One exception was the insanity that was Bay of Pigs....I too remember distinctly the duck and cover drills......the air raid sirens which were erected all over town.....the evacuation route directions painted on the roads...parents debating whether the basement was safe enough or whether they needed to build a bomb shelter in the backyard. And I think this sort of thing along with RFK assasination were particularily bad for everyone because it was like a sudden loss of innocence......a sudden awakening to what kind of assholes run the world or are running around on the streets.
Are things worse now?....I don't think so....I think the big difference is now we are more aware of all the potential nasty business...and the press loves to emphasize how bad it can possibly be.

[pup55]

I think it was a little worse in 1968, frankly.

RFK, the leading presidential candidate, and MLK gunned down in the streets, rioting in most of the big cities (LA and Detroit are trashed), shooting war going on in Nam with antiwar protests going on in the US. Sit-ins and various protests going on at most large college campuses.

Major rioting/police brutality overshadows the Democratic convention in chicago, and subsequent arrest and trial of the chicago 7.

George Wallace, running as a segregationist, manages to get enough electoral votes in the South to give the election to Richard Nixon (that rat). Major revolts/riots going on in Europe: Czechlosovakia and Poland try to break away from the USSR. All of this with ICBM's from US, USSR and China all aimed at each other.

Late 1973 and early 1974 might have been worse too, what with the Oil Boycott, gas shortages, and the surrender in Vietnam. Also, the largest tornado outbreak in history happened early in 1974.

There was one more time, late 1979 until maybe 1981, when the interest rates and inflation happened, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis happened, and the second round of fuel shortages hit. In that case, the economy was really screwed up but that time period lacked the militancy of 1968 for some reason.

What surprises me is that in most of those times previously, the common person pretty much recognized how screwed up the system was and did something to change it (not necessarily for the better). Now, I think there is a substantial portion of the population that actually thinks things are doing just fine right now, and are content mainly to watch Survivor and not expend any energy.

But you can see from all of the above: war protests, racial stuff, oil shortage and bad weather happening at the same time could prove to be really problematic.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bobaloo', ' ') The difference today is that the optimism is gone.

[Zardoz]

While we definitely seem to be approaching a near-biblical convergence of factors (oil and gas crunch, rapid climate change, bird flu, financial collapse, messianic U.S. president, Islamic apocalyptos with nukes), it's still hard to over-estimate how close we came to total catastrophe during the most tense and belligerent phases of the Cold War.

Between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., we had 55,000 thermonuclear warheads, and a huge percentage of them were locked and loaded. We very nearly installed the Pershing II missile IRBMs in Europe on a "launch on warning" basis that would effectively have made the initiation of a General Nuclear Release a matter of quick-responding automated processes beyond human intervention.

That was the most dangerous point in human history, I would say. As scary as things are getting now, nothing was like that.

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')here's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Korillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they Do... Not... Know about it!

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'b')ird flu

[kam30en]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')FK, the leading presidential candidate, and MLK gunned down in the streets, rioting in most of the big cities (LA and Detroit are trashed), shooting war going on in Nam with antiwar protests going on in the US. Sit-ins and various protests going on at most large college campuses.

Major rioting/police brutality overshadows the Democratic convention in chicago, and subsequent arrest and trial of the chicago 7.

George Wallace, running as a segregationist, manages to get enough electoral votes in the South to give the election to Richard Nixon (that rat). Major revolts/riots going on in Europe: Czechlosovakia and Poland try to break away from the USSR. All of this with ICBM's from US, USSR and China all aimed at each other.

[bart]

My memories are like rockdoc123 and especially pup55.

As pup55 said, a LOT of stuff was going on during the late 60s. Huge demonstrations, the draft, battles between the older and younger generations.

The culture was exploding with new ideas, new questions, drugs, political movements, new fashions. Women's liberation, black power, rock-n-roll.

Individuals of all ages were undergoing transformations. The mousey girl in drama class joined the Weather Underground. Somebody's parents dropped acid, left their jobs and joined a commune. A couple of schoolmates died in Vietnam.

There was a mixture of euphoria, optimism, and apocalyptic thinking.

It was an exciting time to be alive.

In contrast, society today is much more conservative; the vision of what is possible more constricted.

Younger people now seem to be more sophisticated, more cynical, more fatalistic. Conformism and social pressure seem to be much stronger. It seems to be harder to be an idealist these days. I admire those who are able to do it.

[Dedshelly]

The threat of death...it's always been there. Aborigines or aliens, roaches or galaxies, every living thing will die-if not in the aggregate, most certainly in the intimate, the personal, the individual. You yourself will in fact die and be gone. That ain't what I would call no news at all. Transcend it. Get over it. LIFE goes on. Help! Promote! Facilitate! How are you going to do that? FEED something hungry dumb ass! A decent man should be supporting 25 people with his labor. I'm sorry-but it seems to me you mewling infants will whine your way to a communal grave with your pitiful selfish bawling gimmee. I'll pay your way here if you will work. Shut the fuck up and go to WORK!

[Dedshelly]

Could be I misunderstood the thread. Thought it was a silent cry for help. Like what are we to do, the younguns you understand. Not trying to indict the 40+ crowd but now that you bring it up-how many do YOU feed, old man? Sucking that dead cow's titty? More than likely, I'll wager.

[seahorse2]

No one above 40 on this thread asked for a "gimme." No one here said they wouldn't die or that death wasn't a fact of life. As far as I know, we are all working.

[seahorse2]

Ahhh dedshelly,

If you want something, you have to give something. That is something everyone over 40 understands, that nothing in life is free. So, if you want something from me, like to know how many I feed, then you have to tell me something about yourself, first off, how old are you, what you do, family? and last, how many you feed and how you define that.

[Dedshelly]

Dear friend, That was posted on the Welcome thing. Click the deal and read all about it. I looked at your history there-nada. No mystery here. Real life. Come see me . Really. Let's work together. Feed the hungry-clothe the naked-comfort the sick-and yada yada yada. We can do it. Looky here, old man, old brother, if we don't do it-who will?

[seahorse]

deleted