Question for anyone who wasn't around in the 1980s

fett on 13/10/2007 at 15:16

Quote Posted by ZymeAddict

Why? Because they can actually string a coherent sentence together with a modicum of an intelligent vocabulary, and without resorting to four letter words? :rolleyes:

Personally, I would prefer some of that "faux politeness" and "group-think" to the constant base language and moronic opinions which pass for communication in this new, glorious, post-1960s world.

I think you may have wandered in here by mistake. The Church of Latter Day Saints is two blocks down on the left. Just follow Eat Shit Blvd. and make a left on Bite My Ass Dr. You can't miss it - they're having a HUGE brain donor fundraiser this weekend. Look for the banners.

Kolya on 13/10/2007 at 16:40

If this was supposed to be a joke then you missed RBJ doing the same thing two posts above. Or were you trying to make a point for modern day elaborateness? In that case, lol.

*Zaccheus* on 13/10/2007 at 18:23

Quote Posted by Brian T

Am I just getting old? :cheeky:

Yes.

Let me put it this way: Some people who were born after the fall of the Berlin wall (Nov'89) will be old enough to vote next month.

Brian T on 13/10/2007 at 18:54

Some interesting, (and conflicting) views on how "alien" the 1980s seem like now, but until someone who didn't experience it gives an opinion we tend to view it according to our subconscious prejudices.:)

For me though the 1980s has some alien and familiar aspects. A 1984 Iron Maiden album for example wouldn't sound too out of place if released today, but computer games have made a huge leap forward. I played some old ZX Spectrum games on an emulator once and I thought that the vast majority of titles I used to play were now really shallow, fun-for-5-minutes affairs, for nostalgia. (I still enjoyed Jetpac, but I digress....)

Zaccheus, I was actually thinking the same thing yesterday, Although I can't honestly say that 1986 seems like yesterday ,according to the cliche, I still remember it pretty well. But I happened to catch a film from 1995 a few days ago, and my impression of the actors was, "they look so young" And 1995 is nearly a decade after 1986. And even thinking back to 1995, so many pop culture things of today were missing then. Britney who? Titanic? Tomb Raider? What are these things? :p :weird: And who here had internet access? Some, but I imagine most people here went online later than 1995. I'd never even heard of the internet until about 1997 or so.

So yeah the march of time is apparent if you pay attention, but I don't have a big problem with getting on. My thirties are a lot better than my twenties that's for sure. Ask me for my opinion twenty years from now though for a more objective analysis.

demagogue on 13/10/2007 at 19:12

Quote Posted by ZymeAddict

Why?

Well, I don't like the 'in your face', keeping it so real we can smell the crotch sweat talk that pervades the media these days, either. And I'm a lawyer for gods sake, so I don't have any problem with thought-out, stylized speech. It's only when it comes across as laughably closed minded, when it's just a mask for intolerance, that it turns me off. Surely there's a distinction there.

And to be honest, the counter-culture spirit I personally preferred, (my previous post was just doing some amateur back-seat sociology, how society really evolved IMO, not how I wanted it to), but what I personally liked was 15 years ahead of the curve, the beats and New York intellectuals of the '50s ... articulate, artistic, politically engaged (in a concrete way, not the abstract way hippies claimed to be, but really didn't care). When they challenged ideas on sex and the individual, they did it with style, with a martini in their hands and Charlie Parker jamming in the background. It's just that that style didn't stick like the 1960s way of talking to each other, that kept wanting to be confrontational and in your face.

...................................

I guess one punchline of this thread is that what feels familiar depends so much on the context. Thinking about it, the computer revolution swept by so fast that I sometimes miss the fact that so much of my life today touches on the internet and different apps, for whatever I'm doing, that are in such a different world than 20 years ago.

Sometimes I feel like right now we're in our own Golden Age ... I'm not sure for what, the "connected" decade (?), but it feels important anyway.
I felt that way in the 90s with the end of Communism, but that seemed to fade pretty fast, actually, since it was the end of something, not really a beginning.
The 80s ... they call it the "me" decade. It feels like sort of a glitch. A decade where everyone just sort of took it easy after all that counter-culture hooplah, made some money, hung out in the suburbs, bought cheap gizmos, played hard music about partying, and partied. Hard not to be nostalgic, except that we have better gizmos now.

Kolya on 13/10/2007 at 21:19

I seem to have reached that age already where I hear friends who are losing their hair telling me about the great fun we supposedly had in the 90s. And every time I stop for a second, think about it and then have to say: No, don't you remember what a bitch the same girl was to you that you're longing for now? And how most of these great parties really sucked and dragged on? You said it yourself back then. This party sucks. That girl hates me. If anything it was cool because we were young and had loads of energy and free time. That's all.
Lately I talked to a guy who's 15 (half as old as me) and he told me what they had done last weekend. They were at the old playground skating, drinking and at some point started throwing empty beer bottles at each other. One of them got a bottle to the head and when the ambulance arrived he barely made it into it, only to vomit out of the door seconds later.
The guy admitted that he wasn't really satisfied with his own pastimes ("stupid boring shit") and I could understand that and I didn't envy him. Been there done that, was all I thought. He then showed me a picture of his girlfriend on his mobile phone and for a moment I envied him a bit. But when we met a week later she had dropped him per text message. C'est la vie.

ZymeAddict on 14/10/2007 at 03:43

Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky

Fuck off and die.

Thanks for helping to prove my point. :cheeky:

Quote Posted by fett

ditto ;)

Quote Posted by Jackablade

Nobody would say this in the 50's.

And why do you say that? I'm pretty sure they still had sarcasm back then.

Quote Posted by demagogue

Well, I don't really see how that tactic is any different now. Watched any politicians speak lately?

Also, it seems more often than not the term "closed-minded" is just used as a euphemism for "I don't like that you don't agree with what I am saying", so it's not really my favorite phrase.

And of course the Beatniks looked better doing what they were doing. They were using aspects of the very culture they were challenging. By the time the 60s were over that culture had been "countered" and the style changed accordingly.

Rug Burn Junky on 14/10/2007 at 14:00

Quote Posted by ZymeAddict

Thanks for helping to prove my point. :cheeky:

ummm, I don't think what is happening here is what you think is happening here.

Though, hey, you had already provided the moronic opinion, I just helped you out with a little base language.

But, really, fuck off and die.

Kolya on 14/10/2007 at 16:23

ZymeAddict, while it looks like RBJ can't help but prove your point at the moment, the idea that language was caught up in a downward spiral has been pursued since the ancient Greeks. There's really nothing to it. Language follows the principles of efficiency and social appropriateness. And I doubt you want the social circumstances back that led to the seeming politeness in 60s language.

fett on 14/10/2007 at 16:36

Quote Posted by ZymeAddict

And why do you say that? I'm pretty sure they still had sarcasm back then.

That's the entire point Zyme - they *didn't* have sarcasm or irony back then. Any basic public speaking or communications class covers the topic of 'knowing your audience' and the number one rule for speaking to people in the 65+ bracket (at this point in history) is absolutely no sarcasm, exaggeration, or irony. They either don't get it, think you're a smart ass, or take you literally. I realized this about 4 years ago, started communicating differently with my older relatives who thought I was a jackass, and it changed the entire tone of our relationships.

The reason it's so easy to create camp from 50's media is because no one portrayed as doing or saying anything contrary to popular opinion. Irony, sarcasm and cynicism took root in the late 60's with the counter-culture movement, Vietnam, JFK assassination, and Watergate. Those qualities are the result of suspicion of the establishment, which simply didn't exist by and large in the 50's. Viewed in retrospect, there was a lot of manipulative, socially evil shit going down in the 30's, 40's and 50's that the general public didn't know or speak out about because they were too fucking polite and trusting - just like the folks on Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver.

I'd agree that there are times to be polite and use intelligently thought out sentences. Most people actually do that most of the time in their private lives, at work, and around friends. As always, the media tends to make the excesses appear more extreme than they are. The internet is whole different puppy so I won't get into that right now.

The reason I spouted off is because when someone uses the term 'group-think' as a positive social concept, two names immediately come to mind: Karl Marx and Jim Jones.