For me, of course it would be the years that were greatest for me and that means when I had few worries and everything was new and exciting and simple. That would be around 1955 when I got a new Bike for Christmas and never watched that boring evening news with boring people like Walter Kronkite. All was right with that best of all possible worlds.
Yes, of course my dad had been bitching about the Army-McCarthy hearings he watched on our 10" big screen Admiral TV in Black and White. But really, who cared if Communists had taken over the government and all the movies and half the TV was secretly infused with Communist propaganda when the new Mickey Mouse Club was on the air, Annette's All American bosoms and all. If she was trying to induce us all to unite and cast off our chains, I didn't notice. Things were great.
It has to have been one of Donald's favorite times too, since he's only a year younger than I am, My dad didn't complain about the 90 something percent top tax bracket, at least not then. Did old man Trump? Somehow both dads prospered anyway as did the nation as a whole. In fact GDP has been almost independent of that number since the end of WWII when America was pretty much great by anyone's standards except for the Japanese and Germans. The war was pretty much successful and we pulled it off without the help of a massive, recession building tax cut for the wealthy like W did. Long about the time I turned 18 or so, the greatness was a lot harder to see, and outside of the moon missions, I think we were rather mediocre in fact. Face it, most of the world thought we were assholes.
I do remember that the fathers of many of my friends as a kid thought the peak of greatness was a lot earlier at about 1900 or so and I used to agree until I learned about the Panic of October 1907 and of course WWI and the world flu pandemic and the huge race riots and lynchings and the horrible conditions of immigrants bringing disease and crime and those women who insisted on voting. It certainly wasn't great during Prohibition when just like today, you got shot when you went out on the street as Donald says. I'm tempted to think it's pretty much a personal thing - greatness.
No matter what you're time of greatness was, it's in the past, isn't it and that means we have to look backwards to find it again, particularly if we don't have more mansions than Henry VIII or a series of inappropriately young trophy wives and jet planes like someone I won't mention. The future is always scary and the past has a known outcome, so as soon as I have that time machine perfected, I'm going to go back and buy me a knucklehead Harley and maybe a 56 Chevy Chevy Bel-Aire sport Coupe or what the hell, a 57 Vette and wouldn't worry about the Bomb because I would know it wouldn't happen. Nobody even had to worry about making a living back then did they?
I always thought of it as civilization hitting its peak, even many years after I became aware of the assassinations of the 1960s and the gravity of the Viet Nam conflict.
ReplyDeleteI figured that the apex or mountaintop was reached around 1965. We had Doctor Zhivago and the Sound of Music in the theaters, not to mention Mary Poppins complete with twelve-inch vinyl gold for the children. Romper Room, Bozo and Captain Kangaroo were still on the air. Get Smart and Fractured Flickers for the more sophisticated crowd. American cars had taken on a new, sleek profile, powered by ever larger and more powerful engines. Winston Churchill had exited this earth confident that he had made it a better place. Queen Elizabeth reigned supreme.
Only problem was that my parents shielded their four-year-old son from the news of the death of president Kennedy. I didn't fully understand the death toll and destruction of the Viet Nam conflict. I had no idea what the rampant poverty in places like India, Central and South America, Africa or other places that I hadn't really learned about really meant in terms of real life. I was unaware of violent police states and the brutal oppression of fascism in Spain and South America. I am sure that to this day, I remain unaware of struggles in South Africa and elsewhere.
I was definitely unaware of poverty in the United States. I thought it was only in Mexico.
So, all in all, I say that 1976 was the best year. That was the year that I invested in a pound of Candy Oaxacan and later a pound of Orange Columbian. Both stashes lasted well into 1977. I also liked "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder.
We remember the past selectively and it seems we were both quite unaware of reality in the same ways. "make America Great Again" is just a fell-good phrase meant to inspire selective and self-serving longing which can only be fulfilled by you-know-who. Truth is no president is going to make this a mid 20th century manufacturing powerhouse with lots of high paying manufacturing jobs. No president is going to isolate us from the world economy without making things vastly worse. Trump is selling a fantasy and he's selling it with lies.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly benefits from international trade and tax loopholes if not outright money laundering for foreign despots.
In many ways this country is graater than it ever was - it just epends on whom you ask. Dojn't ask Trump
And as to that orange whatever and candy stuff. Of course I have absolutely no knowledge of what you're talking about!
My grandparents thought FDR the best and America Great.
ReplyDeleteMy parents thought JFK the best and America Great.
My generation thought RWR the best and America Great.
My children's generation though Obama the best and America Great.
I have no idea what that may mean other than... and so it goes.
Exactly. Trumpistas use the word with no qualification because everyone has his own idea and that way you make people who have nothing in common agree with each other. When I was a kid though, everyone seemed to be looking to the future for great things and now we look at a past we probably invent for the purpose. What happened to the idea that we were getting better and better?
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the idea that we were getting better and better?
ReplyDeleteDon't rightly know Captain. I'm thinking that when it became politically expedient to claim we were getting worse and only you and your party could fix things is when we took a turn for the worse.
Now we have Trump.
The "worse and worse" scenario was the song of the GOP during the Bill Clinton years, when everything was getting better and better. For some reason I can't understand the meme that Democrats were pessimists and Republicans were optimists was out there creating a cognitive dissonance that still makes me queasy to think about. Most Trumpsters, most Tea Partooties and most Fox Watchers think the economy is failing and on the verge of collapse and that the Chines, like one of those payday loan sharks is about to call our loans. Pardon me while I throw up. . .
ReplyDelete