En Garde in the bunker…
The 1950s and early 60s were an anomaly in American history. The borders were largely closed with an industrialized society making it possible for a single earner to support a family. Most of the industrialized world was still recovering from WWII while the US stood alone with Canada. Then came LBJ and his “Great Society“, concurrent with the Vietnam war and immigration reform, whereby Government grew by leaps and bounds and the rest, as they say, is history.
Yes indeed, the old America is gone forever, nor can we ever bring it back. We can, however learn from it as someone once made the argument that the future isn’t getting worse it’s just become different. And that is true. But I still say this future is worse than the past. Especially on a cultural level.
Is the old America gone forever? 1950’s and 60’s UK had special problems… .
Growing up in the 50s and 60s especially in the UK, yours truly and my sister well remember how parents and grandparents always dressed up whenever we went to restaurants – men in suits (with their fedora hats) and women in dresses, grandmother ofttimes scolding us on manners at the dinner table. These days, even in the nicest restaurants, attire is 100% casual. If only we could go back for even a day. THAT!
One can ask freely these days whether or not the old America has gone forever, with a response of “sadly yes“, especially to those of us in the twilight of our years in the 75-to-80 range! SloMoJoeFJBiden has really accomplished the impossible having almost-completely destroyed America in a scant two years. Just who in their right minds would’ve thought this possible when (the real) President Donald John Trump was in office?
As mentioned above, the 50’s will always be America’s Golden Era, but things sure went downhill in the 60’s, the historical turning point perhaps the election of Johnson over Goldwater in 1964. Beginning of the end? Happily, 50’s-60’s legacy music, muscle cars, TV reruns, etc., etc., and Americana in general are still enormously popular. Hope for the future? Not at this time!
Robert Arvay, American Thinker: ‘Is the old America gone forever?’ …
Mike Nowak’s recent piece in American Thinker on the old Perry Mason TV show, although somewhat tongue in cheek, awakened in me some nostalgic memories. As a teenager, I watched many of the episodes when they first aired, and a few years ago, I watched all the YouTube videos I could find as if they were reruns.
Having been an eyewitness to the 1950s and ’60s, watching the videos was sentimentally a bit like visiting my childhood home town. I recognized, if not places, certain landmarks of the mind, and despite my memories of some of the bad things, such as institutional racism in my home state, I felt a longing to return, at least for a brief sojourn, to what was truly good in those times, a goodness that my children and grandchildren missed out on and may never know.
One of the first things one notices in the early series, 1957 to ’59 or so, is the remnant of chivalry that today’s feminists decry as sexist. Men were gentlemen. Oh, come now, there were the boors and abusers, but gentlemanliness was expected. Men held doors for ladies, helped them on with their coats, stood when they entered the room, and so forth. Those customs are so archaic as to be almost laughable among the youngsters of today.
Ladies were, may I say so, ladylike. Again saying, oh come, now, there were tramps, but everyone was aware that chivalry was not yet entirely dead, and people knew how ladies were expected to dress and behave. If you were not there, perhaps you can never understand. Feminism of the angry version has crushed all that.
There were no cell phones, and the telephones available had rotary dials, a feature that some kids now have difficulty understanding. Although automatic transmissions were common in automobiles, clutch pedals remained ubiquitous. I am humorously reminded of some hoodlum car thieves in recent years who tried to steal a car with standard transmission, but they could not drive it.
Perry Mason won all his cases (I think there was one that was solved, but not by him), but the prosecutor, even in defeat, was always an honest broker. Yes, he would gloat when he momentarily thought he had Perry, but he always carried out the law, even when it meant cooperating with the defense. He would never have consented to political prosecution. He would not have tried to send Kyle Rittenhouse or George Zimmerman to prison, not once he knew the facts.
Reluctantly returning to reality, I move from the black-and-white moral certainty of the fifties to the ethically amorphous colors of today, and I sadly note that all the actors and actresses who populated that wonderful fantasy world have departed from this world of reality. Beautiful Barbara Hale, the epitome of the classy lady, died just over six years ago at age 94, preceded, I believe, by all the others.
The absence of that quality of television is the main reason I cut my cable and have not watched TV in many years. [end]
Full link below….
Is the old America gone forever? Leftist mobocracy will destroy USA
Reading the comments is just brutal. Yours truly has always – even to this day! – held a door open for a woman, and most will say thank you, or acknowledge it with eye contact and a smile. Never once have I been lectured over it, but were I to be so, that’s just a good opportunity to throw some more good manners in someone’s face – Much more fun.
The seeds of the woke society were sown in the 60s and 70’s, went underground in the 80’s, and have come back with a vengeance since Clinton’s America to cripple the foundations of our Constitutional Republic: faith in God, faith in family, and faith in the American civil society! THAT!
In the Britain yours truly grew up in, 1964-65 was of great import when I was very fortunate to have been selected by Voluntary Service Overseas (aka V.S.O.) to spend two years in Kingston, Jamaica, which definitely was an outstanding experience – to which I still have fond, fond, memories of such, even today, going on 60 years later – THAT! (link below) When I came back I found that while I was gone three new words had entered the language in Britain: hippie; miniskirt; and pantyhose – (courtesy of my sister Diane, 2 years younger than me!)
That fall upon my return, my college went from rules demanding decorum to entirely abandoning in loco parentis. The Pill was about to change everything. So yes, on a current note, FJBiden has definitely destroyed most of what was left but it was a long time coming and countless books have been written by smart people chronicling the decline. So there:Too bad!
The only real difference between now and then is the establishment was patriotic in the 50’s and 60’s. Now, they’re focused on the final prize, the globe. We had the deep state back then too as WW2 helped usher in the era of the deep state. Perhaps it’s now time to usher in the era of the republic to replace the deep state progressive era, aka 1910-2024. Is the old America gone forever?
And on that note, time for today’s MAGA Pill – Warrior-President Donald John Trump – MAGA! KAG!
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- Robert Arvay, American Thinker: Is the old America gone forever?
- DGH and V.S.O.: Voluntary Service Overseas:
