Then and now

Then:Billy Joe Jim Bob could annoy only the locals at the coffee shop with his nonsensical bullshit.

Now: Email makes if possible for BJJB to suck on a worldwide stage.

 

1955: Criticize the administration, and you're a communist sympathizer who hates America.

2006: Criticize the administration, and you're a terrorist sympathizer who hates America.

Yep, things sure have changed.

 

But God forbid if you deny them 2nd Amendment rights ... [/NRA gun nuts for Dylan and Eric]

 

Every one of those is true, and if you were living in 1953 and knew that's how it would be in 2006 ... you'd have serious doubts about living in the 2006 world.

Plus:

1953: You leave your front door unlocked when you go to bed.

2006: You attach all four locks on your front door when you go to bed.

So next time anyone wants to tell me how we're so much better here in enlightened 2006...

 

Of course, I think all of us would have serious doubts about living in 1953.

Right, shotty?

 

Point, but things were a helluva lot simpler.

 

Simple isn't good, though.

Neither is complex, inherently.

But it has been my experience that few things that matter are truly simple.

Even things that seem simple don't generally turn out that way.

 

1953: A society grounded in good old-fashioned values and beliefs in Jesus engage in the traditional Christian reaction to young, unwed mothers: Shame, ostracism, and pretending the whole thing never happened.

2006: The godless liberal machine fights to take god out of the schools while at the same time promoting obscene practices like making contraceptives available to students who don't want to pay the rest of their lives for one youthful mistake.


1953: A woman who wishes to dispose of a pregnancy faces both social stigma and possibly dangerous surgical procedures...as it should be.

2006: Women receive clean, safe medical care in the event they choose to commit the sin of exercizing free will over their bodies.


1953: Young men grew up, played football, went to church, engaged in mechanical missionary congress for the purpose of procreation only and made damn sure people knew who the head of the household was.

2006: A pleague of homosexuality sweeps the land, bringing dangerous ideas such as human rights and personal freedom to the fore.


1953: People were honest about being racist, homophobic, nationalist misogynistic bigots.

2006: People hide behind "good old-fashioned values", "American ideals" and of course, Jesus.


Born in the wrong era, I guess....

 

It's pointless use of energy though. You don't have a time machine. You can't go back to the past. The present is what it is for better or for worse. I think if you look at some of the posts the present is a little bit of both.

Yes, there are some things that were probably better in the past, but there was also racism, small mindedness, etc., that made the world much worse. I'm not saying some of that is not here in the present. It's just not institutionalized or as prevalent and accepted. And could you imagine if you went into surgery in 1957 for a kidney transplant or to have bypass surgery? What about the other technological advances that have happened since then? So if you want to live in the past, you're more than welcome. Instead of doing that, why not work on the present? Do what you can to make the world a better place.

I think the nostalgia is fine but I would take time to look past some of the rose-colored perspective.

 

You'd rather live in a world of official racism, shot, just for the sake of simplicity?

 

Junkie, speaking of no sense of humour......

Christ, did you take your Hondo pills today?

 

That's total bullshit, Junkie.

People can -- and I would argue, have a duty to -- point out that the myth of the better, simple 1950's is a chimera sold to America largely by the Republican party in order to get people to vote their fears.

If you were an upper middle class white male, I have no doubt that 1953 was a simpler time for you.

But for blacks and hispanics and women and gay people and anyone with anti-capitalist views -- not to mention the poor -- I have a feeling that the 1950s were pretty fucking complicated.

And judging by the posting history of the person who started this thread, I don't think it was mean as a joke, but rather as a political statement.