# 1972: The beginning of the postmodern era

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1972-the-beginning-of-the-postmodern-era/848746>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 1, 2020, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1972-the-beginning-of-the-postmodern-era/848746 "2020-03-01T11:35:30Z")\
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**Author:** ![Jeb\_2026](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a4c791/32.png) [@Jeb\_2026](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeb_2026)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1972-the-beginning-of-the-postmodern-era/848746/1 "2020-03-01T11:35:30Z")

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I’ve been reading about 1972 lately, and I’m shocked by the amount of notable events that occurred that year. It feels like a dividing point between the optimism of the sixties and the disillusionment of the seventies. Some of the most prominent:

- Nixon won reelection in a landslide. As Hunter Thompson said at the time: “McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”

- Pruitt-Igoe was demolished only 18 years after it opened, taking with it the modernist architecture that spawned it. The architect, Minoru Yamasaki, had also designed the world trade center, which opened next year.

- Apollo 17 lands men on the moon for the last time (Are we ever going back?). The club of Rome publishes Limits to Growth. Next year the oil crisis ends the post-war economic boom.

- Arthur Bremer shoots George Wallace, which inspires the plot of the movie taxi driver, which inspires John Hinckley to assassinate Reagan.

- The first successful video game is released (Pong). A pornographic movie, Deepthroat, goes mainstream.

- The Bronx begins to resemble a bombed out city. Crime continues to rise inexplicably. Miner’s strike in the UK as unemployment doubles.

- Nixon goes to china. Then he carpet bombs North Vietnam. Then he bombs them again for Christmas. Sweden compares the US to Nazi Germany. The US cuts off ties with Sweden.

Of course, this was long before my time, so I probably have no clue what I’m talking about. For those of you who were around back then, what do you think?

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