Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

(1/6) > >>

superboyac:
I'd love to hear from those that were around from the 70s or before.  For me, the most fun and comfortable decade was the 80s, when I was in elementary school.  I don't know if that's because of my age or if things were different.  But I seem to remember the adults having more fun back then also.  I can't put my finger on it but it seems like we are much more private and secluded now than those days.

I've heard from some of my older friends about the 60s and 70s, and boy, they sound fun.  It sounds like that sex drugs rock and roll were not an exaggeration, but I may have a weird group of friends.

40hz:
70s hands down.

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll were not an exaggeration. But they were paradoxically not the big deal they've become today.

Sex was, among other things, highly political. As were most things back then. Sexual "liberation" (i.e. promiscuity) was a statement of rebellion and a manifestation of individual freedom for many people. It was entwined with the politics of the era. Something most people can't understand today. You had the Pill, the women's rights movement, and a general rebellion against all authority (brought on by the US government continuing its war in Viet Nam despite the widespread objection and outrage of a large portion of its people) - all of which had a big impact on throwing old sexual mores to the wind. Sex wasn't just about sex back then. And that had a lot to do with why people behaved differently than they do today.

Sex was also pre-AIDS. That made a huge difference in the degree of willingness most people had for engaging in sexual activities. People used to say: "A little roll in the hay never killed anyone." They can't say that any more.

Still, kids seem to be just as ignorant (in real terms) about sex as we were at that age. (Strange...I would have thought they'd be wiser since they start much younger than we ever did.)

Drugs. It was all almost innocent compared to today. They were largely done in ignorance of the long-term repercussions they would have for some people and our society as a whole. People also "did" drugs in a different manner and for different reasons than they do them today. And the drugs of choice were different and considerably less potent than the designer and lab created "products" they are are now. (And FWIW most stories about how much drugs people were doing back then are highly exaggerated. One thing I've noticed: when it comes to drugs - almost everybody exaggerates. Everybody from the users, to the dealers, to law enforcement. There's just something about drugs that makes it a "high-BS" topic.)

Rock & Roll is still rock & roll. Except now it's mostly a business which suffers from far too much self-conscious posturing, new-age angst, and market research IMO. I haven't heard too much I'd consider "original" or "definitive" in what seems to be a very long time now. Hope springs eternal however. Even if I'm not waiting up nights.
 8)

superboyac:
I haven't heard too much I'd consider "original" or "definitive" in what seems to be a very long time now.
-40hz (March 19, 2012, 10:44 AM)
--- End quote ---
I'm working on it, buddy.  i got a little something going...

Thanks for the 70s thoughts.  The one thing you said that bothers me the most is the drugs bit.  I am not a fan of today's prescription drugs, and frankly, they scare me more than they give hope.  Starting from when I was 17 and went to college, I learned that far more people take anti-depressant and other similar things (pain killers) much more so than I would have expected.  Probably my favorite girl of all time was a victim to it, through no real fault of her own, very sweet girl.  I know entire families on anti-depressants that most people have no idea about.

I almost want to say a lot of these prescriptions are just far too potent, or they have side effects that are bad enough to make the good negligible.  I also want to say...for some of these folk, wouldn't it be a lot more reasonable to just smoke a little sumptin?

Shades:
The 90's for me.

Nice jobs, excellent coworkers, good money, PSX gaming with friends while having "added some extra dimensions" that were way better than the 3D from the theaters/TV's now, still having family.

40hz:
Just as a follow on: the best thing about that era was (for me) The Whole Earth Catalog. :-*

Almost like Tom Swift and American Boy Magazine got together with Scientific American's The Amateur Scientist column.

Suddenly people stopped talking about doing things and just went out and did them. Farming experiments. Communal living attempts. Self-publishing (all pre-DTP too!), community organizing, art & crafts, independent radio broadcasting and film making, adventuring, lost arts like building a stone wall or building a waterwheel driven saw mill, geodesic domes, arcologies, street theater, beekeeping....it was awesome! It gave people inspiration - and some sort of permission to go around the way things were, and start doing their own thing instead.

And also asking questions...

Much of the entrepreneurial spirit of the 80s came directly out of the philosophy preached by Kevin Kelly and the Whole Earth crew. And by the "can do" attitude and skills of those who were inspired by it.

What's really interesting was that this mentality or attitude was nothing new. It was the way most of America used to think before the stock market crash back in 1929.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose... ;)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page