Well, you grasp them, too, or it wouldn't have resonated with you as it did. 1968 stands out because "The Sixties" were primarily a coastal phenomenon, with outposts in Chicago and college towns. Otherwise, in most ways, the 1960s were far more like the 1950s than not.
When RFK's funeral train made its way from NYC to DC, there were hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, many of whom probably wouldn't have voted for RFK if he'd lived, standing solemnly watching the train pass. Some were saluting, others pledging allegiance. There are plenty of photos of this. They're extremely moving.
We had that kind of unity then. The two sides weren't out to cut one another's throats. Democrats weren't thrilled when Nixon won in November, but Wednesday was just another day in America.
Again, I find your insights to be quite perceptive, which I guess is just a sneaky way of saying that they much align with mine, esp the part about the bi-partisan expression of grief displayed along the route of RFK's funeral train. Yes, even in that grim, divisive year of 1968, national unity was predominant.
But the seeds of today's near civil war-level divisiveness were being planted in the late 60s and early 70s... faced with the defeat of their frontal assault on both the idea and reality of "America." the so-called "New Left" retreated to a Long Game to achieve their revolutionary aims--thus began the long march through the institutions, as it became known--beginning with academia, which the establishment more or less conceded to the New Left as a bribe to stop burning/bombing things down. "They can't cause any trouble there," I believe was the thinking--as if control of the intellectual apparatus of the United States of America was not something to be too worried about.
So yeah, 50 years later, the lineal descendants of "The New Left" control virtually every major American institution, and here we are contemplating a Second Civil War--who'd have thunk it?
Exactly. Two generations of academic indoctrination ( dumbing down ), the gradual turning of the news media from vaguely liberal but sane and fair to overt Leftist advocacy, and, in my Christian certitude, the principalities and powers whose greatest effort has been expended on shaping popular culture.
Here's how things have changed in a quarter century: when Bill Clinton got into his scandal with Miss Lewinski, I remember the embarrassment on the faces of quite a few female newscasters in the early days of the story. Imagine! A quarter century ago, we still had a culture in which modesty and boundaries were not seen as hopelessly retrograde.
This will stomp on people's feet and I don't care: age or lack of natural physical attractiveness are entirely understandable reasons why many people may not be as appealing to look at as others. But it's certainly not disconnected from the trashing of moral standards that sometime in the 1990s, The New Slobbery began to make its appearance.
You and I remember a time when people took pride in their appearances. Remember how beautiful women's dress designs were when we were kids? Remember when the annual Ten Best Dressed Men's list was significant? Remember grooming, in the good sense? Remember when people didn't dress like utter slobs in public? Remember when few men had tattoos, and almost no women had them? When someone might dye her hair, but it would be purple, and crewcutted, besides?
I'm astonished by the fact that 60% of America's young qualify as obese.
It's all saddening, and the slobification of this country is what you'd expect in a decadent people.
I certainly am of the view that the decline in the care with which people presented themselves in public--which began in the late 60s and is visible to anyone who has looked at pictures of the American people over the course of the 20th century-- is a key barometer of American cultural decline. And I say that as someone who contributed to that disturbing trend.
We have all had our days. I'm decently dressed in public; a guy my age who isn't might be stopped by the police. But currently, I'm nurturing my last hippie hair unstyle, so I do not claim guiltlessness.
What you're really saying, my dear Pacificus, is that we're a couple of old guys.
Bobby, there a lots of us still around who were alive in 1968. but few grasp the distinctions between now and then as well as you do.
Well, you grasp them, too, or it wouldn't have resonated with you as it did. 1968 stands out because "The Sixties" were primarily a coastal phenomenon, with outposts in Chicago and college towns. Otherwise, in most ways, the 1960s were far more like the 1950s than not.
When RFK's funeral train made its way from NYC to DC, there were hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, many of whom probably wouldn't have voted for RFK if he'd lived, standing solemnly watching the train pass. Some were saluting, others pledging allegiance. There are plenty of photos of this. They're extremely moving.
We had that kind of unity then. The two sides weren't out to cut one another's throats. Democrats weren't thrilled when Nixon won in November, but Wednesday was just another day in America.
Again, I find your insights to be quite perceptive, which I guess is just a sneaky way of saying that they much align with mine, esp the part about the bi-partisan expression of grief displayed along the route of RFK's funeral train. Yes, even in that grim, divisive year of 1968, national unity was predominant.
But the seeds of today's near civil war-level divisiveness were being planted in the late 60s and early 70s... faced with the defeat of their frontal assault on both the idea and reality of "America." the so-called "New Left" retreated to a Long Game to achieve their revolutionary aims--thus began the long march through the institutions, as it became known--beginning with academia, which the establishment more or less conceded to the New Left as a bribe to stop burning/bombing things down. "They can't cause any trouble there," I believe was the thinking--as if control of the intellectual apparatus of the United States of America was not something to be too worried about.
So yeah, 50 years later, the lineal descendants of "The New Left" control virtually every major American institution, and here we are contemplating a Second Civil War--who'd have thunk it?
That's my very brief history of how we got here.
Exactly. Two generations of academic indoctrination ( dumbing down ), the gradual turning of the news media from vaguely liberal but sane and fair to overt Leftist advocacy, and, in my Christian certitude, the principalities and powers whose greatest effort has been expended on shaping popular culture.
Here's how things have changed in a quarter century: when Bill Clinton got into his scandal with Miss Lewinski, I remember the embarrassment on the faces of quite a few female newscasters in the early days of the story. Imagine! A quarter century ago, we still had a culture in which modesty and boundaries were not seen as hopelessly retrograde.
This will stomp on people's feet and I don't care: age or lack of natural physical attractiveness are entirely understandable reasons why many people may not be as appealing to look at as others. But it's certainly not disconnected from the trashing of moral standards that sometime in the 1990s, The New Slobbery began to make its appearance.
You and I remember a time when people took pride in their appearances. Remember how beautiful women's dress designs were when we were kids? Remember when the annual Ten Best Dressed Men's list was significant? Remember grooming, in the good sense? Remember when people didn't dress like utter slobs in public? Remember when few men had tattoos, and almost no women had them? When someone might dye her hair, but it would be purple, and crewcutted, besides?
I'm astonished by the fact that 60% of America's young qualify as obese.
It's all saddening, and the slobification of this country is what you'd expect in a decadent people.
But hey, we got the Reagan tax cuts!
I certainly am of the view that the decline in the care with which people presented themselves in public--which began in the late 60s and is visible to anyone who has looked at pictures of the American people over the course of the 20th century-- is a key barometer of American cultural decline. And I say that as someone who contributed to that disturbing trend.
We have all had our days. I'm decently dressed in public; a guy my age who isn't might be stopped by the police. But currently, I'm nurturing my last hippie hair unstyle, so I do not claim guiltlessness.