LogFAQs > #963391800

adjl posted...

I think that's mostly just an age thing. Generally speaking, depending on how socially adept one is as a teenager, either high school or college are going to be the high point of many people's lives, since that's a period where they have relatively few responsibilities and can mostly ignore how much the world sucks. Really, the world has always sucked and is always going to suck. The only thing that changes is how it sucks, so if we're fondly remembering a period because we don't remember it sucking, that's purely because that was a time when we had the privilege to ignore the suckitude, but because it actually didn't suck.

I know youth nostalgia is a thing...but really, by more objective measures I think the 80-90s actually hold up pretty darn well. It was pre-toxic internet, the US was at a high point, we were largely pre (open) culture wars, etc. The only good things added post-90s are phones/Amazon/etc technical conveniences. The 80-90s weren't perfect by any means, but if nothing else there were some fairly consistent values and a sense of "us".

Did it exclude some people? Sure, but I will honesty say I believe mainstream culture was reaching out to those who were excluded better in the 90s than all of the hyper partisan crap that's happening today. To point: there need to be accepted mainstream values and a happy sense of "us" to make people want to meet there in the middle. That existed to a degree then. It doesn't now.

I don't want to over-romanticize the 90s, but I don't believe it would be right to dismiss it as nostalgia either. Those who prefer the US of today are largely those who view themselves as part of a small "tribe" within the US that's been empowered by the internet/etc. There's nothing wrong with that at a high level (it's better in some cases than others) but it has killed the mainstream culture of the past. To anyone who would say that's not a bad thing, I would say "do you really think you're going to enjoy what comes next?" It's easy to tear down. Building up is hard (and NEVER perfect).

Not sure why I'm going off on this in a SE topic.