From: froggy@praline.no.neosoft.com (Carlos May)
Newsgroups: alt.thinking.hurts,alt.fan.tito
Subject: Decay Today vs The Good Old Days
Date: 9 Oct 1996 05:05:53 GMT
Organization: Froggy's Usenet Salvage Company


Recently, I've been hearing lots of talk here in the USA 
about a time when things were supposedly better all around.

Okay, so just when were the good old days?  What do conservatives have 
to look backward to with nostalgia?  What time period was Bob Dole talking 
about when he refered to a bridge to the past when there was a better 
America?

Let's take a quick look at the history of the USA in the 20th century,
and see if we can spot some Golden Ages.

Turn of the Century:
Tuberculosis is epidemic; malaria and yellow fever outbreaks in the 
deep south.   A layer of coal dust and grime over everything is part of 
life for the increasing number of Americans living in cities.  Most 
don't have indoor plumbing nor electricity.  Women not allowed to 
vote in most states; fashion dictates they wear corsets so tight that 
fainting spells are common.  Rioting mobs lynch Blacks, Italians, 
Chinese.  The President is assasinated by an Anarchist. 

Hmmm, doesn't look like a likely prospect for the Good Old Days 
to me.  Let's go up in time.

the decade up to 1910

The decade has the distinction of having TWO crashes and depressions 
(they were called "panics" back then).  
President Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) warns of "menace and danger"
of America's wealth concentrated in the hands of the unscrupulous few.
Sweat-shops and child labor proliferate.  Striking Union organizers shot
by militias. 
Continuing lynchings and race riots.
Disenfranchizement of African American voters in Southern States and 
increasingly restrictive "Jim Crow" laws.

1910s

The mass media of motion pictures decried by conservatives as a 
corruptor of youth.  
Unpresidented labor strikes repeatedly break into violence. 
Faction war in Mexican Revolution spills across border.
"Suffragette" women demonstrating for right to vote beaten by mobs 
and arrested by police.  Well known preacher Billy Sunday proclaims 
America's morals and family values to be at an all time low.
"Jazz" (a gutter slang term for copulation) music hits the national 
scene; it is loud and jarring and to much of the older generation 
doesn't sound like music at all. 
Inflation and profiteering.  "Red Scare" persecution of domestic 
disidents.
Millions of young American men sent over to the vermin infested battle 
fields of Europe for the most horrifying war in history.  Large numbers 
of those who come back alive are maimed or crippled, and/or tormented 
by screaming nightmares whenever they attempt sleep for years afterwards.
On the home front, alcohol illegalized.  Anti-foreigner riots; rash of 
minority church burnings.  Influenza Pandemic; the greatest number of 
disease fatalities the world has ever seen.  Families, even entire towns 
wiped out.  Post war financial panic and depression.  Religions
proclaiming that the period of Divine retribution against mankind 
leading to the end of the world has arrived gain millions of converts.

1920s

"Lost Generation" of youth; politically apathetic and distainfull of 
their elders & traditional morals.   
"Flappers"
Women's fashions routinely show parts of their bodies which would have
caused arrest for indecent exposure a generation earlier.
Conservatives decry explosion of pornography.
"Teapot Dome" scandal shows massive corruption conspiracy between 
big oil money and White House officials; President Harding saved from 
prosecution by his sudden death.
Huge Ku Klux Klan resergence.
Use of illegal drugs (alcohol products) booms; manufacturing and 
smuggling of illegal alcohol becomes a significant force in 
the USA economy.  Widespread corruption and disrespect for the 
law.  Growth in organized crime; gang turf wars spray automatic 
weapons bullets in major cities.
"Farmer's Holidays" -- agricultural price collapse.
Worst stock market crash in history.

1930s

The Great Depression.  Record unemployment.  Banks Collapse.
Protest march on Washington D.C. by World War One veterans dispersed 
by force. "Hoover-ville" shantytowns of disposessed grow. In 
parts of the country joblessness hits 50%; millions of vagrants 
rome the country.
Republicans kicked out of office. According to new President 
Franklin Roosevelt, 1/3 of the nation ill fed, ill clothed, ill 
housed.  Democrats institute massive government social programs  
decried as the end of a free America by some Republican conservatives.
Unpresidented labor strikes.  Bread and soup lines of hungry 
Americans.
Polio epidemic.

1940s
Rationing of gasoline and some food and products as war in 
Europe and Asia spreads.  America attacked and goes into largest 
war in history.  4 years of war; ending with first use of nuclear 
weapons.  
War time alliance with USSR quickly breaks after victory.  "Cold 
War" begins.  "Red Scares" domestically; loyalty oaths required 
of government employees. House Unamerican Activities Committiee 
investigates the entertainment industry.  Blacklists.  Cold war 
on verge of shooting with Berlin Crisis. 
Soviets detonate atomic weapons; massive arms race begins.
Continuing Polio epidemic.

1950s

Korean War. 
"Red Scares" escalate.  McCarthy "Witch Hunts". 
Protests and disruptions over segregation/desegregation in 
American south.
Children learn "Duck and Cover" drill: that a nuclear attack 
on the USA could come at any time, without warning.
"The Beat Generation".  Juvenile deliquincy said to be at crisis 
proportions.  Dispite vehement denunciations by conservatives,
"Rock and Roll" (gutter slang for copulation) music gains popularity 
with youths.


Early 1960s
Conservatives decry explosion of pornography.
Rash of airline highjackings. 
Protesters for integration met with widespread violence.
Cuban Missle Crisis hangs world on brink of nuclear war.
U.S. troops sent to Vietnam.
President J.F.Kennedy assasinated.
Race riots in cities.
At Republican convention, Senator Barry Goldwater says immorality at all
time high.

Late 1960s

Worst riots in USA history; cities burn.
Assasination of leaders Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy. 
Commentators remark on culture of unpresidented violence. 
Vietnam war escalates; meets with growing protests and oposition.
Drastic divisions of opinions in USA.  "Generation Gap".
In some places, Americans face threats and violence for wearing peace 
symbols.  
"Hippie" movement.
Young women's fashions that would have been considered indecent 
a generation earlier. 
Large growth of use of illegal drugs.
Protesters at Democratic convention violently beaten on national 
television.

Early 1970s
Troops fire on unarmed college protesters. 
Huge demonstrations against Vietnam war and government policies.
Drastic inflation; President Nixon (Republican) meets it with 
wage price freeze and mandatory governmental controls. 
Oil embargo causes crisis gasoline shortage.
"streakers"
"Watergate" abuse of power scandal paralyzes executive branch 
of governement, high ranking staff resign, several imprisoned.
President Nixon resigns in disgrace; saved from prosecution only 
by pardon by his sucessor.

     ~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I could go on, but I assume "The Good Old Days" must have 
been at least a generation (20 years) ago.  

My best guess as to when Mr. Dole idealizes as a better time 
would be the period between the end of World War II and when 
the USSR got the atomic bomb.  If so, it would seem that 
the Good Old Days were 4 years long, there was a Democrat 
in the White House, and Mr. Dole spent most of them in 
a hospital recovering from his war wounds.  So maybe not.

Okay: so just when WERE the Good Old Days, and just WHAT was 
so GOOD about them?

                      Wondering simply,
                                        Froggy


     ***********************************************************
     * froggy@neosoft.com  "The Information Super-Frog" [dibs] *
     ***********************************************************