With all the chaos going on around us right now it is easy to think how the world has lost control but when we ask for the good old days back what exactly are we really asking?
I decided to dig a bit and take a look back to try to find these elusive good old days and see what all the fuss is about. So, take a trip with me down world history memory lane!
The 90's were pretty great, right? The best cartoons, Radical toys, flannel shirts. Surely, these are the good old days.
The Los Angeles riots in 1992 left 53 dead and caused 5,500 property fires.
The Oklahoma City bombing took place in 1995 and left 168 people dead.
Ahmed Ressam was detained trying to cross over the border from Canada into the United States and it was confirmed he was planning to bomb the Los Angeles Airport.
Well, there is actually a ton of terrorist events that took place in the 90's so let's just narrow this down to which wars were active....Surely, that will expedite this....wait....
First Congo War (1996-1997), Second Congo War (1998 - 2003), The Gulf War (1990-2003), The First Chechen War (1994–1996), The Kargil War (1999), The Kosovo War (1998–1999), The Yugoslav Wars (1991–1995), The Rwandan Genocide (1994),
Were we talking about the 1980s then? Great music, huge hair, and outrageous outfits what is not to love?
In 1983 during the Lebanese Civil War two truck bombs struck buildings housing United States and French forces. The organization Islamic Jihad took responsibility for this bombing which killed 299 servicemen and is known as Beirut barracks bombing.
In 1988 Pan Am flight was blown up while flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bombing killed 243 passengers and 16 crew members as well as 11 people on the ground. It is the largest terrorist attack to take place on UK soil to date.
Oh and...the 1980's is when AIDS outbreaks officially became an epidemic starting in 1981.
Well, there is actually a ton of terrorist events that took place in the 80's so let's just narrow this down to which wars were active....Surely, that will expedite this....wait....
The Cold War (1945–1991), Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), Invasion of Grenada (1983) – a 1983, Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992), Arab–Israeli conflict (early 20th century – present), 1982 Lebanon War, Iran–Iraq War (1980 - 1988), Nagorno-Karabakh War(1988- 1994)
Hm..maybe the good old days are hiding in the 1970's with the sexual revolution and musical explosion.
Let's not forget about the The Watergate Scandal though which remains one of the biggest presidential scandals in U.S. history.
Crime in the U.S. also skyrocketed in the 70's and more homicides took place than currently.
The economic performance of the U.S. in the 1970's was also the worst it had been since the great depression.
Oh and the Vietnam war continued until 1975....
and, you'll just trust me that there were a buncha other wars happening too, right?
Okay, breaking down each decade is proving difficult to do in a single blog so let's just talk about some "highlights" from the last century.
I think by now you get my point that there were really no "good old times". If we go back further things just get worse. We get to a time when in the U.S. husbands could send their wives to a mental institution just because they wanted a new wife. We get to a time when we owned black people as slaves. We get to the holocaust. We see the great depression. The Salem witch trials.
If we keep traveling back we get to a time where the average life expectancy was under 30 and where many women died during childbirth. A time where there were none of the vaccines people now complain about and thus polio was an epidemic. Yeah, if we go back far enough we get to a time where religion ruled and science was ignored and people were violently persecuted for having ideas. We get to a time where public torture and death was a sport.
Would like the follow up with every decade's good and bad, thank you for sharing!
I think there are aspects of each decade that make people nostalgic. As a whole, yes there were sucky things too. I remember the good old days when BTC was under $100!
HAHA Now THOSE were the good old days. Sadly, I didn't know to buy them. :D
Aye they are only the good old days for those who bought it... but it is NOW that is the real good old days because if you did buy it way back when you are sitting on a goldmine.... lucky b'stard!
Pretty sure we peaked in '78 ;)
There are some great medical advancements happening now that I am personally thankful for as back in the 70s nobody knew what IC was and several women even killed themselves after battling with the disease for 10, 20 years. So, I am going to have to disagree. :) At least now, I have some hope even though treatment for my disease has a long way to go.
I think it's easy to find bad things that happened in every decade. There's an awful lot of good things that came out of the 80's and 90's. Take computing and the internet. Those creations really blossomed in the 80's and 90's.
I'm one of those who say the good old days. I was born in the 70's, I'm now in my 40's and have earned the right to say it. The world has changed a lot and in my opinion for the better and for the worse.
It's natural for younger generations to dismiss the experience and wisdom of past generations. It's a dangerous thing. And equally dangerous is when older generations ignore the younger as naive and idealistic.
Just like all decades have good and bad, so do generations of people. There's good and bad habits and cultures that we all take from our respective decades of formative development. We just need to work together.
As the say 'can't we all just get along?'. Great post @lauralemons. Good discussion stemming from it. :)
PS. To me the 80's and 90's were the good ol days. I don't care what people say.
That was pretty much my point. I wasn't trying to say nothing good happened in the earlier generations, just that there was no idyllic time as some suggest. They all had bad and even now there are many great things. I would be screwed living with my diseases in the 70's because now medical advancements have gotten to a point where I can be treated but back then there was no treatment for my suffering. So, there are reasons I am bad to be in this decade even though it may not be my favorite.
I'm only about to be 30 but even I prefer the 90's for many reasons to right now but I'd again be screwed medically back then. So, there are pros and cons. :)
I've been around a couple of decades more than you, and I can verify that each decade had its good and its bad... but I do believe everything is getting progressively better overall. This is a bloody great time to be alive.
Thanks for the input and if not for being biased due to needing modern medicine I would say the 90's were my preference. XD
Interesting take on the phrase "good old days". For me the good ol' days was being a young and naive child not understanding the world that we live in when playing in the streets was all that was important and we had 2 cent bubble gum.
I never experienced that as I was horribly abused as a small child so I guess I never thought of it that way. In a nostalgic personal sense and memory of childhood it definitely makes sense. :) I can understand that. This was more directed at people who think the past was a better time to live.
I'm so sorry you had a shitty childhood. Not all of my younger years were great but I think we have too much knowledge these days. Sometimes I wish I could live under a log and not know the horrific parts of society. Hugs xx
I always knew too much about the bad parts of the world and often wonder what it'd be like to actually be a child. Living under a log sounds pretty tempting sometimes. haha There are pros and cons to having unlimited knowledge at your fingertips.
Get your history right my friend. 9/11 did not happen in the 90s! Also, AIDS did not reach epidemic proportions until the 1980s. There were only a few cases before 1980. You should really double-check your facts before posting articles like this. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_HIV/AIDS
lol of course it didn't. XD I am a jackass. I did the 80s and 70s before the 90s and guess I got messed up taking in so many dates. :)
I remember what class I was in during 9/11 so I should have caught that.
and it is recorded that the AIDS epidemic started in the late 1970s.
I think that source might be better than wikipedia.
I guess it didn't reach epidemic status until 1981. I will definitely be more careful next time I post a blog about history but the source I had did tell me it started in the late 70's. I will find more sources next time.
The point of my blog hopefully still stands that nowhere in history was a magical time to live.
Thanks for pointing those out. I want to do posts about each decade and will take this lesson to check facts harder with me. :)
Sorry, but I am a pedantic fucker when it comes to facts! But you are right, there was no "golden age"... and I would argue that NOW is better than any time in history. There is more tolerance, more communication and more possibilities than there ever was at any time in human history. I am happy to be HERE NOW... and I think it is only going to get better as time goes on! Every new generation is cooler and more switched on than the last one.
Wuao excelent Post !! Very interesting information .. Always worth knowing a little more ... Greetings from Venezuela; I follow ... You can follow me and know a little more about the places I publish including my country .. Greetings @lauralemons
This was actually really funny, not the tragedies but the whole idea of "wait, when were those good ol days again? " haha nice post
I agree that all decades had their issues. It just seems to be coming more frequently now with less lulls in between.
Interesting reflections. At least it took some thought in comparison to most of the garbage we find in here. I guess in the end every day is what you make it to be. Well done.
Well, as Carly Simon (I think) sang, "These are the good old days."
But I also think it's important to sweeten our memories as much as we can, while we go about making new ones.