Rhyming History (Part II)

 

Two weeks ago, with Mark Twain as my inspiration, I posited that the period of time covering 1950-1970 strongly, but not perfectly, parallels our present day circumstances.  In this post, I’ll do my best to complete the comparison.

     The 1950’s-1970’s were prime Cold War years.  The fear of a communist takeover was the main impetus for the Korean War, Vietnam War, Space Race, and espionage.  Irrational fear led to the emergence of Senator McCarthy and his meteoric rise to infamy, and just as sudden fall back to earth.  This fear led people to act in ways they would not normally, justified or not, for good or bad.  The events of 9-11 have led to a similar fear of immigrants present day.  With fifteen out of nineteen hijackers from Saudi Arabia, anti-US terrorism was given a face, and that is what TSA agents started looking for in airports.  And these fears manifested into an anti-immigrant feel in this country where we saw Islamic-Americans attacked for being terrorists, Asian-Americans attacked because of Covid, and Mexican-Americans accused of being rapists.  With our country quickly moving towards a minority-majority, it would appear that these types of interactions will not only continue, but get worse. 

     The handling of the Vietnam War by the Johnson administration created a generation gap between an older, conservative, patriotic segment of the population that lived through two World Wars and a Red Scare, and a younger, liberal, contrarian group with much less life experience.  Where mom and dad liked Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, the kids were obsessed with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, or the anti-war hymns of Bob Dylan.  Veterans who served and survived the Nazis, the Japanese, the North Koreans, and the Chinese could not understand why this next generation refused to do their duty when they were drafted, oftentimes burning their draft cards. Parents enjoyed the acceptable drugs of alcohol and nicotine, while their children expanded their minds and society’s limits with marajuana and LSD.  Crew cuts, collared shirts, and ties on one side rolled their eyes at the long-haired, bearded, Jesus Christ look-alikes.

     The present-day generation gap does not appear to have an anti-war core, and is more about technology and social media.  The older generation came from an outwardly social upbringing (1980’s, 1990’s).  People somewhere around my age (53) communicated by talking, usually over the phone.  Discussions were not recorded.  The younger generation grew up texting, posting, and tweeting.  They do not like to speak out loud in conversation, and loathe to pick up a phone, dial a number, and say something (I have witnessed this many times in my class).  Each side can not understand how the other thinks, and the older crowd sees the new form of communication as a sign of the apocalypse. 

      Another present-day generation gap issue appears to be the gender issue.  Older people, such as myself, grew up with two choices; male or female.  Sexual identity was also relatively simple, as you were either heterosexual, homosexual, bisexaul, or asexual.  Today’s gender identity issue is incredibly more nuanced, as the debate has expanded into correct pronoun use and hundreds of terms to help identify what people are.  Many in the older generation are struggling greatly with this, as they were always able to identify boys and girls by look.  Society identified boys as blue and girls as pink (And let’s be honest. People love their gender reveals these days).  The idea that a person who is anatomically female, and may even have the stereotypical female look, can identify as something else causes older brains to malfunction.  Our society has gone through massive changes in the last 15-20 years regarding gay rights, and more currently transgender rights.  It will be very interesting to see where this issue lands in the next 15 years, as this younger generation ages.

     The next comparison between the two time periods is the issue of environment. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring came out in 1962, outlining the dangers of pesticide use and warning of long-term dangers.  Within a decade, Republican Richard Nixon signed an executive order that created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since then, the environmental crisis has made great strides (cleaning up our beloved Blackstone River, cleaner air in many polluted areas), but has also become an apocalyptic scenario for many who believe the earth is in it’s last chapter due to man-made climate change.  There is little doubt that the chemicals we use in our world have allowed us to make and do great things, but there have been awful consequences that can not be undone, such as the increased cancer rates throughout the years.  As long as I can remember, the environment was an issue.  I can still recall the commercial where a Native American man stands on the side of a highway with a tear streaming down his face after someone throws litter out of a car.  Smokey the Bear kept reminding us that only WE can prevent forest fires.  But present day, it feels more urgent. The amount of strong hurricanes, overabundance of tornadoes, and siege of wildfires in our west is enough empirical evidence for many to say the case is closed.  They believe we are responsible for the major climate events.  Politicians are taking notice, as President Biden is currently in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss what we need to do as a world. It feels overwhelming and hopeless, and, like everything else, has become a political hot-button issue between the left and the right.

     Speaking of politics, there are comparisons that can be made between presidents, as Democrats have a Kennedy-Obama connection and Republicans can study a Nixon-Trump correlation.  The world is still waiting to see if Biden becomes more of an LBJ or Carter, but that discussion is for another time.

      Again, I know this is imperfect, and there are many more strands we could tug on such as music, movies, comics, TV, and many others.  But these were some thoughts I had rattling around in my head that I wanted to share.  I hope it sparks a conversation in yours.  Thanks for reading!