As we are a similar age, I have lived through the same time period, but on this side of the pond. I was born 11 months after the Cuban missile crisis, so I guess my parents must have seen that and still thought it was a good idea to produce me.crfriend wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 1:11 pm For all the hopefulness of the 1960s/70s era, there was a distinct sub-current that was dark indeed and very troubling, and that's what eventually collapsed the known world in the 1980s. Having some knowledge of navigating tough waters, I'm pretty good at picking stuff like this up, and in this case did not like what I saw one iota. What caught me slightly off-guard was how fast it all fell apart once the the lynchpins got pulled -- and how it happened pretty much worldwide and not just in the USA.
By the time the late '80s had rolled around I was so confident in the eventual outcome that I called the "Extinction Date" for the Middle Class in the USA as 2020 -- and darned near nailed it. Not bad for a wet-behind-the-ears punk calling something in the future. Perhaps luck, perhaps detailed analysis ... who knows. But what I knew was that raising a child is those conditions so that the little one would have even a shot at something great was going to be like climbing Everest without oxygen. I even foresaw the coming of the insurrection in DC -- but was stunned by how fast it arrived -- decades ahead of schedule.
Europe, with the exception of Russia, it seems, was spared the worst of it because of its commitment to human well-being and the General Welfare of the populations. Without that commitment, the USA (and Russia) both collapsed and the hard-line reactionaries took over. Europe did experience a discomforting swing to the hard right as well with a rise in Neo-Naziism in Germany, the rise of the Le Pen party in France, and Thatcher and her crew in the UK.
I was brought up in a strict religion with a certain future world view. I have taken a very different path to what my parents wanted and never been afraid to have and follow my own thoughts. I have lived through an amazing time of change, working in the tech industry. The phone when I was a kid was this thing at the bottom of the stairs with a rotary dial and wires. Now the thing in my pocket.... The world has many problems but the humans keep coming up with answers. Of course we may blow the place up one day, but that is where my life started.
If we ever meet, I would love to have a more in-depth conversation with you.
Look after yourself
Mouse