# How Can We REGAIN The Optimism of the 1950's? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 2, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230 "2003-09-02T23:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/21 "2003-09-03T05:33:15Z")
I’m not sure if people really _were_ so optimistic in the 50s, since I wasn’t there. But if they were, it seems to me that optimism was based mostly on naivete/closed-mindedness. The “Me” generation came later, but I think the 1950s were a pretty selfish period of history in a lot of ways. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/22 "2003-09-03T05:45:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ralph124c \* > \*\*So, does anybody feel the way I do? \*\* No! How do you feel about not having Miranda rights? (at least in the U.S.) I also don’t think people were so “innocent.” So many movies show a lot of back seat boning going on. (not that there’s anything wrong with that…) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/23 "2003-09-03T06:05:01Z")
What about the 90’s, people? That was an era of peace…except for Bosnia and Rwanda. We had our own self delusions that the Internet would solve everything, much like the Atomic Cure-all of the 50’s (does anyone remember 175 bucks a share for [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com)?). America could do anything!!! Up until September 11, 2001, that is. Just like the 50’s were until November 22, 1963. Things change, but they come back again. Read Nordhoff And Hall. The Fourth Turning. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/24 "2003-09-03T06:20:49Z")
or Strauss and Howe…sorry. I was staring at The Mutiny on the Bounty as I typed that. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/25 "2003-09-03T06:24:52Z")
For starters, I suggest we spend a decade bombing Europe back into the stone-age. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/26 "2003-09-03T06:41:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AskNott \* > \*\*The concept of buying on credit was coming into flower in the postwar 50’s. The idea of being cheerfully in debt up to one’s eyeballs quickly became acceptable and popular. The credit bureau industry (credit reporting, and the inevitable bill collecting) grew from nothing to a big deal. My dad dived into it, and that’s how he made his modest fortune. Sometimes I wonder if he was a cynical, hard-nosed, nasty jerk _before_ he became a bill collector. \*\* Oh, poppycock and balderdash. The idea of buying on credit was coming _back_ into flower in the 50’s. EZ-CREDIT was all the rage in the teens and twenties. After the great depression, it died for social and pragmatic (no money) reasons. It was not until the prosperity of the fifties that a new generation started to widely use credit again. ---
**Author:** ![boobah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/46a35a/32.png) [@boobah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boobah)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/27 "2003-09-03T07:02:46Z")
Hi **Ralph**! May I suggest you watch [Pleasantville](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/), as a response to your OP? ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/28 "2003-09-03T08:18:25Z")
I bet in the 50’s everyone wanted it to be like it was in 1902. ---
**Author:** ![sickboy51](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@sickboy51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sickboy51)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/29 "2003-09-03T09:38:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > \*\*You want a decaying, 40-odd year old corpse? > > OK. > > Here’s a shovel, get grave robbin, ye wee pervy lad! 😃 \*\* I fnot the real one, at least somebody similar. I´m tired of skinny fleshless girls. Fucking anorexia. ---
**Author:** ![sickboy51](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@sickboy51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sickboy51)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/30 "2003-09-03T09:42:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Babbington \* > \*\*What about the 90’s, people? That was an era of peace…except for Bosnia and Rwanda. We had our own self delusions that the Internet would solve everything, much like the Atomic Cure-all of the 50’s (does anyone remember 175 bucks a share for [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com)?). America could do anything!!! Up until September 11, 2001, that is. Just like the 50’s were until November 22, 1963. Things change, but they come back again. > > Read Nordhoff And Hall. The Fourth Turning. \*\* I dunno what 90´s did youl live, but I always considered that decade (at least the first half) as a very depressive one. Maybe it was just because I was a teenager, I had to move to more than 500 km form my hometown and say goodbye to my old friends… Anyway, if you listen to the music (at least the music I use to listen to) it was no the best example of happy-happy music. ---
**Author:** ![freetobeme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@freetobeme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freetobeme)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/31 "2003-09-03T10:20:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by boobah \* > \*\*Hi **Ralph**! > > May I suggest you watch [Pleasantville](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/), as a response to your OP? \*\* I can’t imagine what this would have to do with anything. Yes, it was a movie about racism. Why do people feel the need to weld the 50’s to racism? Racism spans the centuries. Of course it was a movie about optimism too so… I have to say my folks have always said that the 50’s were the best times They’re thinking on personal terms. Take it for what it’s worth. In retrospect there is always plenty that turns out to be _wrong_ about any given decade or era. But there was a sense of optimism back then that I believe hasn’t been felt since regardless of what that sense was based on. And even if you point at all these issues that everyone has brought up here they’d likely still say that they miss those times. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/32 "2003-09-03T11:25:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zebra \* > \*\*Ms Monroe is buried in an above ground vault. > > What you’ll need is a pry bar. \*\* I don’t need it , **sickboy51** does. ---
**Author:** ![sickboy51](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@sickboy51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sickboy51)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/33 "2003-09-03T12:36:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > \*\*I don’t need it , **sickboy51** does. \*\* I wonder if we could clone her… ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/34 "2003-09-03T14:13:36Z")
Bring back the black lawn jockeys before every urban home. Bring back those quaint dancing cigerette ads on TV. Bring back drunk driving and no penalty. Bring back the cars that after an accident all the person had to do was hose off the blood from the dashboard and continue on. Bring back those carefree days of children unrestrained in the cars jumping willy nilly over all the seats while dad smoked his unfiltered camels with the windows rolled up. Bring back the days when beating your wife was considered ‘teaching her a lesson’ and belting the kids for mouthing off was ok. Bring back the days of nearly zero birth control. Wheeee, what fun! ---
**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:** [September 3, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/35 "2003-09-03T14:27:39Z")
Did they still have 1920s style death rays in the 1950s? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/36 "2003-09-03T14:48:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*I bet in the 50’s everyone wanted it to be like it was in 1902. \*\* Strewth! Every era looked back fondly on a previous era: in the 1950s, you saw a lot of movies about the halcyon days of the 1920s. ---
**Author:** ![Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muldoon_s_Squishiness)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/37 "2003-09-03T16:34:22Z")
Continuing **Shirley Ujest’s** line of thought: Bring back actual physicians being used to advertise cigarettes. Bring back news anchors actually smoking during the newscast. Bring back the days when **every** man wore a fedora. Bring back the days when you dressed up for dinner at home. Bring back the days when there was no mention of cholesterol, good or bad. Bring back the days when there were no seat belts in cars. Bring back the days when a 3 martini lunch was considered the standard thing to do. Bring back the days of no smoke detectors. Bring back the days of professional baseball and football players advertising cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/38 "2003-09-03T17:01:30Z")
Bring back the days when pinching a woman’s ass in the job place was acceptable and firing her for complaining was standard. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/39 "2003-09-03T17:09:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Palewriter \* > \*\*Growing up in England in the 50s was anything but rosy. I remember it as a rather nasty, closed-minded, bogus kind of environment. Rationing, scrimping and saving, wondering what the neighbors would think. Not to mention the smog. Give me Texas in the single digits every time. Ah, that’s because England in the toilet was part of that wonderful 1950s era for the USA. Want to bring back the incredible economic boom of the 1950s and the optimism that it will engender? Destroy the economies of the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro (oops, never mind, already there), China, Japan, South Korea, Viet Nam (yes, even lower than it is now), and a few others. Install backward-thinking dictatorships in Spain and Portugal to keep their economies down, too. Likewise, give the majority of the Middle East to the UK and France, but only on the provision that they badly mismanage it and completely alienate the entire population (at least as bad as Dubya is doing–actually worse in some instances, the British used poison gas on the Iraqis). The 1950s may have been great for the USA, but they stank on ice for much of the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230/40 "2003-09-03T17:13:18Z")
Oh, I forgot: Install dictatorships throughout South America to ensure very cheap raw materials for US industry to build and sell to the rest of the world, who can’t make their own, since all their factories have been trashed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-we-regain-the-optimism-of-the-1950s/199230.md?page=3)