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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhich decade do you think was the best?
I'm just curious what Du'ers think. In my case I think the 70's were the best in terms of feeling a sense of optimism, like we were progressing. I also liked the 60's. From the 80's on I've felt a lot of negativity in the country. Anyway, I'm just curious. I realize this is pretty broad brushing.
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40's were best. | |
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50's were best. | |
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60's were best. | |
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70's were best. | |
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90's were best. | |
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2000's were best. | |
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2010's were best. | |
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Skittles
(153,226 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)other day, he hates corporate America. It's changed so much, corporate America, the "old" corporate America gave me some incredible opportunities as a kid, but not so today for many.
how we never know "the good old days" when we actually LIVE them
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)granted, the music, the optimism. I realize a lot of things still were bad for many people, but I felt we were progressing, at least trying ... things were not perfect, but it seemed people were trying. Today, it seems there are sooo many things stacked against progressing for the good of all.
What is a scary thought to me, is if in 20 years we look back at now as the best of times because of where we are in another 20 years.
Skittles
(153,226 posts)we are stalled and starting to go backwards
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)dystopia.
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)-- Mal
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)However, as someone who lived just a mile away from the very first Wal-Mart when it was still a mom-and-pop shop, it seems like the "Wal-Martization" didn't really get going until the '70s, when it looked like the store was aiming to become another Pamida chain.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)It's morning again in America, ushered in some of our darkest days. I think we could have survived one term.
Oh snap. Skittles, your post came in before I finished composing mine.
bluerum
(6,109 posts)Recently, the 90's
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)I hit my best years under reagan and all the assholes he encouraged, so I missed out on the golden age.
1929 would have been a bummer, but no decade is perfect.
Auggie
(31,207 posts)Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)but I was young and crazy then, so that might explain it.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Whenever we were young and crazy was the best.
Ouch, my lumbego...
-- Mal
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)when we were fighting a shitty war and kids were getting gunned down in the streets.
And I forgot Nixon and Ford. And gas lines.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Oh, how I miss the beegees...
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Have you ever observed, that change is noticable not at the beginning of decades, but in the middle? Whereas 1971 is pretty different from 1961, the kinship between '65 and '75, or other mid-decade matchups, stands out for me, at least starting in 1946. The world wars kind of screw up those matchups, of course.
The comparison breaks down in this century, too -- 2005 was vastly different from 1995.
-- Mal
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)periodicity of intervals of about 10 years.
BeyondGeography
(39,386 posts)KegCreekDem
(75 posts)65 to 75 were the best years. Coming of Age and all that- still starry eyed enough to think our generation could make the difference. Maybe we will yet....
RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)Mainly because of being in my twenties, good music and had so much fun.
tridim
(45,358 posts)I'm sure I would have enjoyed the 70's more if I were older. I did love 70's music even as a kid.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... I can't remember any of it!!!!
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)weren't having a good time!!!
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)But hey, I was born in '56, I remember the 60's just fine. I was just too young to enjoy the acid and the sex.
So your friend's take on it is really the better.
-- Mal
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)But, that's because I have the fortune to remember the excitation of my family members (I was 6) to elect John Fitzgerald Kennedy. We were going to be a civil society and expect much of ourselves.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)Marr
(20,317 posts)Some people will say the 1630's, but they're just trendy hipsters. The 1610's were the shit.
Inkfreak
(1,695 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Hoping to squeeze out seven more decades. Get back to me then.
Raine
(30,541 posts)pnwest
(3,266 posts)I was in my 30's, still single and had figured out a little bit about how life works, had a couple of really cool jobs, money was flowing...The shallowness of the 80's and the crappy music really had me in despair, but then the nineties happened, grunge exploded, introspection was cool, as well as thought provoking movies, books and music. It was great. Best years of my life.
Then I got married. Shit commenced.
crimson77
(305 posts)Post war 55-60, music speaks to me, possesions built with care and meant to last, movies were amazing. Plus the TV, enough said. I'm 35 BTW.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)buy this thing from us and it will last, and 'Made in the USA' meant 'Made in the USA' and with some quality.
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Remember "planned obsolescence?" The wikipedia article isn't bad...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
I think what made the 50's and early 60's "good" for some people (white males, that is) was basically shortage of labor. Companies were compelled to treat their employees with some dignity and fairness because it was a worker's market. That changed as the Boomers started to come of age, and that change was exacerbated by the influx of women and minorities into parts of the labor pool where they had never had a place before.
-- Mal
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)planned obsolesce went back to 1932, and also the notion of gov. required obsolesce as a proposal.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)It just goes to show that there are no new ideas, just old wine in new bottles.
-- Mal
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)myself!
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)the 90s were the best for me personally. I didn't have a care in the world besides going to school and playing with my video games and toys. I never had to worry about getting a GF, learning to drive, or finding my own place.
As for the entire country financially, I think that its best decade is hands-down anytime before Reagan became president. He was the chief architect of the trickle-down economics that has put so many working class people in a hole, yet the GOP still wants to continue.
When it comes to social issues, though, I think minorities have more rights today than we ever did. Before the 2000s, gay marriage was much less accepted. And before the '50s and '60s, there was no Civil Rights Act or Voting Rights Act, and segregation was still legal.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)lots of luck. You were lucky if they didn't jail you or stick you in some godforsaken mental institution with lots of shock therapy.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)How can there even be a debate here?
craigmatic
(4,510 posts)moondust
(20,017 posts)Still the post-war "golden age" and before the "age of rapacious greed" set in leading to massive inequality.
thucythucy
(8,097 posts)but before Reagan and AIDS.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)grantcart
(53,061 posts)polled DU member started to be sexually active.
Obviously the 70s were the best.
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)when I could go downtown for all my shopping, when I could ride my bicycle all around town (and to some neighboring towns as well) as a kid and not have to worry about getting kidnapped by some lunatic. In my case, the '70s were a good time to be in school, but outside of school that decade sucked.
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)So of course I like it best.
But more for the music.
I was a teenager at the time and I didn't have to worry about the stuff I have to worry about now.
Ineeda
(3,626 posts)High school, college, meeting my husband, getting married, first child -- all in that decade. Also a red Mustang convertible, the election of JFK, and the Beatles. But bad things too: the shocking assassinations of three remarkable men, the Vietnam War, Richard Speck and Charles Whitman.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)They've all been great to me so far, no real complaints.