# During lockdown. Before 9/11. During the war. How many others? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 14, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663 "2022-08-14T21:50:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/1 "2022-08-14T21:50:40Z")
I think the term might be “cultural milestones”. Anyway, recently I was talking to someone about movies, and the phrase “During lockdown” kept coming up. Sounded a lot like my parents saying “During the war.” Things did happen differently During The War than they did at other times. As they did: Before the Crash of '29 During the Depression Before JFK was shot Before 9/11 And culturally: Before the Beatles Before Elvis Before TV Before sound films Before there were men on the moon Before women could vote And other general timespans, like the Eisenhower years, or between-the-wars. So what others can you think of? I’m interested in hearing from non-Americans as well. I can think of two: Brits have the Thatcher Era, and Germans have During Divided Germany/Berlin. What else? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/2 "2022-08-14T22:29:36Z")
There are different kinds of milestones, and not all of them are cultural. Did the 60’s (free speech, hippies, drug use, anti-war agitation, etc.) happen more because Kennedy was assassinated or was it more because the baby boomers were coming of age and their concerns and attitudes were overwhelming by sheer numbers? This is very arguable of course, and there were almost certainly multiple influences. However, events that mark an era are sometimes just events, not causes. Many who lived through it would regard the cold war as a momentous period, but perhaps more diverse than monolithic. Anti-communist hysteria and H-bomb drills in schools gradually went away, and perhaps were replaced by a kind of complacency after we “won” the space race. The end of the cold war around 1989-1990 was both an event and, possibly, a cause. Outside enemies were no longer the issue (for a while), and in 1995 was the Oklahoma City bombing, causing us to fear each other instead of outside forces. At least until 9/11. Trump is certainly going to be a milestone of every kind. The attitudes first popularized and polarized by Newt Gingrich and then the Tea Party have come home to roost on our heads. “Post-Trump” won’t be the end of that either. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/3 "2022-08-14T22:40:26Z")
Before Watergate the majority (ableit silent) of people still argued that you could blindly trust the government. The blinders were taken off. ---
**Author:** ![omenran](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omenran/32/3318_2.png) [@omenran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omenran)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/4 "2022-08-14T22:57:56Z")
It seems like before Columbine there were fewer shootings of schools or mass shootings in general. Theres also a litany of perhaps smaller events that have gone on to affect the US (or be talked of as such): The war on terror Dot com bubble burst and that recession Housing crisis and _that_ recession Me too Movement Electing the first black president BLM and related protests and activism Berlin Wall coming down Of course other events have been big elsewhere: Brexit and the founding/rise of the EU Different genocides, ie Rwanda, former Yugoslavia region The crash of the Asian economies in the 1990s Putin coming to power in Russia ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/5 "2022-08-15T06:38:08Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > So what others can you think of? I’m interested in hearing from non-Americans as well Apartheid/The Struggle, and Post-apartheid are the big ones here. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/6 "2022-08-15T11:12:29Z")
I think ‘before/since the internet’ and possibly as a separate item ‘before/since social media’. Both of these things had separate and significant effects on the way people obtain/consume information ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/7 "2022-08-15T11:27:03Z")
Related : before smartphones. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/8 "2022-08-15T11:32:46Z")
Yeah, I think smartphones had a much greater impact on behaviour than simpler mobile phones that preceded them (even though those were really common). I remember carrying a dumbphone and occasionally getting a call or text that was of at least moderate interest or importance. With smartphones, there seems to have been an upshift in the priority of trivial communication. You must (or at least feel you need to) stop what you are doing and read a notification that turns out to be a friend saying they just ate broccoli. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/9 "2022-08-15T11:47:55Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Apartheid/The Struggle, and Post-apartheid are the big ones here. Similarly, the Troubles in Ireland. I’m not sure about some of the ones listed… For instance, the Kennedy assassination was surely a momentous event, the sort of thing that everyone who lived through it knew where they were when it happened… but it didn’t really change much. You can’t look at one of your memories and say “Ah, yes, that must have been before the assassination”, the way you could with, say, the pandemic, or (often) 9/11. The Cold War probably does count, but it has vaguely-defined boundaries. I guess if you want to pinpoint a date for its end, you can use the fall of the Berlin Wall… What date would you point to as its start? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/10 "2022-08-15T12:01:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What date would you point to as its start? [25 Feb 1948](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), [24 June 1948](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade) or [4 April 1949](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO) could all work. I favour the second one. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/11 "2022-08-15T12:04:05Z")
There were some power outages in major portions of the US, one was notable of having a baby boom 9 months later, that may qualify. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/12 "2022-08-15T13:49:09Z")
There also have to be some localized ones, like Hurricane Katrina or the Paradise fire in California. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/13 "2022-08-15T13:56:33Z")
“Before the bomb.” Was a common expression in the 1950’s. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/14 "2022-08-15T16:16:07Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think ‘before/since the internet’ To borrow from Warhammer 40,000, I say “before the Dark Age of Technology”. Also, how about the Challenger explosion? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/15 "2022-08-15T16:25:12Z")
> [@omenran](#): > > Berlin Wall coming down I was in my mid 20s when the Berlin Wall fell, the Warsaw Pact communist states in eastern Europe suddenly became non-communist, and when the Soviet Union very rapidly disintegrated. It shocked me, at that time, just how rapidly (and, amazingly, _peacefully_) all of that happened. At that time, there was the sense that the world had drastically changed. Which was true, though it then went on to develop in other, unexpected ways. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/16 "2022-08-15T16:35:30Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > [25 Feb 1948](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), [24 June 1948](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade) or [4 April 1949](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO) could all work. I favour the second one. As could the first Russian nuclear test, or Sputnik, or the establishment of the Warsaw Pact, or the end of WWII, off the top of my head. The problem isn’t that there’s no date that you can use; it’s that there are too many dates you could use. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/17 "2022-08-15T16:40:06Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I was in my mid 20s when the Berlin Wall fell, the Warsaw Pact communist states in eastern Europe suddenly became non-communist, and when the Soviet Union very rapidly disintegrated. I was in middle school when most of that went down (technically I was still in elementary school when the Berlin Wall fell, middle school for the rest). The biggest effect on me was that our social studies textbooks became obsolete almost overnight, as our teacher often pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/18 "2022-08-15T22:35:46Z")
After The Pill. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/19 "2022-08-16T02:05:45Z")
Before and after Sputnik, October 4, 1957, The official beginning of the Space Race. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663/20 "2022-08-16T06:33:34Z")
There’s the event in itself, and then there’s the question whether it’s commonly or popularly used as a cultural marker. Yes, over here the “Thatcher era” is a distinctive fact, and so was the preceding “postwar settlement” or “welfare state” era. They both serve as journalistic shorthand: and, interestingly (or not) “austerity” could refer to the Conservative squeeze on public expenditure since 2010 (until Covid) or the postwar Labour government’s continuation of rationing and economic controls. Other journalistic markers might be Suez (1956). And obviously “Brexit” is going to be used that way, both journalistically and popularly. But the others, not so much popularly. On the other hand, you may hear people use “in old money”, not so much as a direct reference to the 1971 decimalisation, as a jocular metaphor for almost anything that’s since changed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-lockdown-before-9-11-during-the-war-how-many-others/969663.md?page=2)