Being a product of a later time, I read that and just naturally fixated on the phrase “sex stable,” envisioning the latter word as a noun rather than an adjective . . . :o
Their court cases were more about not letting blacks or Jews move into a house because it offended some sensitive white people down the street, or not letting blacks drink from a water fountain because some sensitive white people thought that using the same fountain as blacks would somehow harm them.
Social conservatives then were saying much the same thing about new music like Elvis Presley’s. And conservative types in the 1920s, AIUI, said the same kind of thing about jazz. The more things change…
Like being gay? Or like marrying someone of a different race or religion?
What about the rate of consumption of alcohol and tobacco?
I seem to recall some TV documentary that mentioned that the WTC towers were, at first, thought to be eye sores. After time munched on, the New Yorkers eventually came to accept them as part of their skyline, and eventually, pride as respectable feats in engineering. Humans seem to fear change.
I heard a theory on talk radio recently that the 50’s were a product of the war. (WW2, that is…)
You had the biggest, most destructive war in history fought in the previous decade. All of those veterans returning home wanted desperately to get back to a life that had some sense of security, stability, and normalcy after the trauma and sacrifice they went through.
Even the folks on the home front (in the USA) had to deal with being seperated from spouses (or family) as they got drafted and shipped out, the dreaded telegram from the War Department (KIA notices), rationing, spectres/runors of spies and sabotours, so the war was stressfull for them, too.
With military precision and solidarity, the ideas of the wife, 2.3 kids, car in the driveway, white picket fence, and supper ready when you get home from work were subconciously agreed upon as the ideals of normalcy, if not “the good life”.
While closer inspection does show the cracks in this illusion (already expounded upon in this thread), realising were a lot of these folks are coming from goes a long way to understanding why things came about the way they did.
The 50’s weren’t going to last forever, as the country moved beyond the still fresh memories of the war, and as a new generation of young 'uns moved into adulthood. So, no, Vietnam in itself did not topple the “baseball and apple pie” construct that the 50’s are depicted as. IMO.
I call it…THE FUTURE!!!
Which is a good way to sell cars or promote undersized (if troubled) race horses.
Well, speaking of Mr Lileks, I give you Interior Desecrations.
Some of the butt-ugliest designing to come down the pike.
BrainGlutton, I ate at Ships once! I felt like I’d died and gone to hebbin’
Bolding mine. “The wife” may well have been forced out of the job she held during the war in order to make it available for the male soldiers returning from the war. This reflects economic considerations that favor males, disguised as a “return to normalcy.” Yes, married women benefit from their husbands’ income. So would a married man benefit from his wife’s.
I missed your point… sorry. Respectfully request clarification. Are you agreeing or disagreeing with my post (and the theory I passed on)? Are you merely pointing out yet another crack in the illusion? (Male bigotry?)
I am only relaying the theory, as based on returning war veteran views. Since the majority of the returning veterans were male, there ya go. I wasn’t "harping for the good ‘ol days’’.
The theory, as I related, seems to have some plausibility, I think. Of course, I realise that with something as complex as the evolution of a human society, there isn’t a simple one paragraph explanation for the change in American society (as perceived from 40-50 years later) from 1950 to 1969.
I see the vietnam War as finally making the US public completely cynical about politicians and government. Everybody from the president on down, lied about vietnam. the US population was fed lie after lie, and even now, people like Robert Mcnamara cannot admit the full extent of their medacious behavior. That is why i never take anything that any politician says at face value. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!
Somthing that GWB ought to consider 9when writing his memoirs).
For some folks, it was Watergate.
I always thought the damned ugly glass boxes were eyesores. Turns out they were badly-designed deathtraps, too! Only thing they were good for was when you came up out of the subway, they told you which way was “downtown.”
If you dig that, check this out! 
Things change. People’s tastes, wants and needs change in response to the changing world. I’ve studied the Vietnam War since the day I almost got drafted to help fight it, and we have no idea what would have happened if Oswald had missed (he didn’t) or Johnson had been more intelligent (he wasn’t) or McNamara had had more courage (he hadn’t). We just don’t know.
The American culture of the 1950s was affected far more by music, portable radios and the rising rage of oppressed blacks than by the Vietnam War. That war was, as our current war is, a far distant thing that had no noticable impact on our everyday consumption. Indeed, it was fought at the same time Johnson was trying to launch the Great Society – and America had almost enough resources to actually do both! Not quite, but almost. People complained about rising prices (gasoline prices leapt from 22 cents a gallon to almost 50 cents a gallon during the 1960s; cigarette prices skyrocketed from a quarter a pack to almost a dollar a pack just during my adolescence!) And poodle skirts, duckass hairdoes and Chuck Berry were as dangerous to society then as low-rider pants, bling-bling and Fitty Cent are today.
Vietnam gave the American culture, such as it was back then, a few songs, a few phrases and a few more insights into the world around us, but it did not significantly change the way we see ourselves. We Americans still see ourselves as the greatest people in the world, and we still wonder why almost nobody else does. That hasn’t changed.