I just saw a thread title about oil crisis, and it got me thinking. This last year has been a lot about WMD, gay marriages and Islam. Ten years ago, the www was just starting out, 15 years ago, it didn’t really exist. But if we had had the opportunity to instantly debate current affairs, what would we’ve been talking about in past times?
The JFK assasination is a conspiracy theory dreamscape now. I was only three years old in '64, so I don’t know if it was even debated back then. I guess Iran-Contras would’ve been a hot topic 15 years ago and that the hostages in Iran in '79-'80 would’ve been inflammatory, had we had access to a forum like this some 20 odd years ago. So… what would’ve triggered us in other times? The US entering the WWII, back in '40?
And more importantly, which of the issues we debate right now will be considered interesting in 50 years? I mean, if my assumption is correct, that the question of who killed JFK wasn’t an issue in '64, then there might be things we’re missing right now. And there might be things that are hot topics now, but they will be considered totally irrellevant in 50 years.
In the 1960, Vietnam was the in topic, then came amnesty for people who ran away to Canada, then came a pardon for Nixon.
Then of course came the Energy Crises and all the Jimmy Carter era stuff. I recall the concern over our boycott of the Moscow Olympics and the ban on weapons to Argentina.
Then came ‘Do you think Reagan is nuts or a Genius?’ Is the Soviet Union an evil empire?
It is remarkable how much time and effort we spend on things that later seem so obscure.
Should there still be laws against interracial marriage?
Are conscientious objectors cowards?
America – Love It or Leave It!
Do nice girls take the pill?
Should mothers work before their children are school age?
Should women be firemen? (policemen, President, the boss )
Fifty years from now I think that historians will debate why Americans were so slow to anger when it became obvious that the Bush Administration was deceitful and corrupt.
Or perhaps they will debate why such little effort was made to curb greenhouse gases.
This reminds me of my college days - in the late 1980s. There was still grafitti in the concrete sidewalk (made when it was wet) saying “Spiro Agnew’s father should have been sterile” and other blasts from the past.
In some sense, the concrete slabs and bathroom walls were a primitive form of GD, I suppose.
Here’s a classic Straight Dope post by my from 1964. I was way ahead of my time. Not only did I have a net connection years before the internet was invented, I was posting on it five years before I was born. I’m sure you’re all very impressed.
Well, 30 years ago or so, you would have had considerable debate with eniviromentalist in the vein of Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome demanding broad government action to manage the coming food and material shortages in the coming decades that could kill hundreds of millions. And don’t forget about the coming ice age. Of course, conservatives would be arguing that they are just scare-mongers.
