Anyone else miss the 80's?

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zboy1
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Anyone else miss the 80's?

Post by zboy1 »

I'm wondering, does anyone else have fond memories of the 80s like I did? It seemed life was much more simpler and happier back then. Or maybe that was because I was only a kid and teen back then? I don't remember feeling depressed about the country (U.S.) as I do now. I just feel like life is so cynical these days. Some of my favorite memories of the 80s include:

-cartoons
-family sitcoms
-fun movies
-hanging out with friends
-great music
-Arcades
-NES, Atari, Sega Master System
-nice looking girls
-crazy fashions like shoulder pads, spiked hair, etc.
-the optimism of the era
-great economy
-the country not as divided as it is now
-not as inundated with technology and gizmos like today

Anyone else have any opinions of the era?
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Post by zboy1 »

odbo
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late 80s/early 90s

Post by odbo »

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Disillusioned_American
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Re: Anyone else miss the 80s?

Post by Disillusioned_American »

zboy1 wrote:I'm wondering, does anyone else have fond memories of the 80s like I did? It seemed life was much more simpler and happier back then. Or maybe that was because I was only a kid and teen back then? I don't remember feeling depressed about the country (U.S.) as I do now. I just feel like life is so cynical these days. Some of my favorite memories of the 80s include:

-cartoons
-family sitcoms
-fun movies
-hanging out with friends
-great music
-Arcades
-NES, Atari, Sega Master System
-nice looking girls
-crazy fashions like shoulder pads, spiked hair, etc.
-the optimism of the era
-great economy
-the country not as divided as it is now
-not as inundated with technology and gizmos like today

Anyone else have any opinions of the era?
Well, I was just a young boy during the eighties, so I have less recollection of the "good times." But I do recall being fond of things like neon-colored shirts, spiked hair, hightop sneakers with the tongues hanging out (like those cheesy white Reeboks, lol), the DeLorean automobile, watching Kung Fu and Samurai Theater on late night TV (before martial arts films were mass-commercialized and trendy), watching Tour of Duty TV series (with the original soundtrack), freestyle bicycles being popular (Huffy and Murray made some great and cheap bicycles), Ghost Busters films, and playing 8-bit Nintendo and Sega Master System (those times were great, playing duckhunt and mario).

But honestly I think I miss the nineties a little more, since by then i was old enough to appreciate what was going on around me more:

- "grunge" rock emerging from Seattle (Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam)

- Going to NYC, eating at a Korean restaurant before it was fashionable, riding the subway and walking in Central Park before the city became a police state, seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and feeling proud of my country. Things just felt more fun and exciting back then compared to now; back then you'd see asian foreigners on vacation in NYC with big cameras strapped to their necks, and they seemed excited and happy to see the US for the first time. People smiled.

- Roller skating rinks, bowling alleys, arcades, miniature golf courses, and malls were popular social-outlet destinations for teens and young adults.

- Other than some issues in LA, I felt like the racial tension was much less than it is today in this country. Although the country was quite racially diverse, it felt like things were at a more comfortable level twenty some years ago. The flood gates to massive third world immigration hadn't been opened quite yet.

- There was far less development in rural areas. There wasn't the massive construction of cookie-cutter suburban homes and condos, nor was there constant development of farm land to build houses and big box stores. Less visual pollution and crowding. Even on the Eastcoast, one could drive down a country road for miles without seeing a single house in some areas, and there wasn't always some asshole tailgating you in these once sparsely populated areas like there is now. You could pull over on the side of one of these country roads and drink a beer on your lunch break without being hassled, and without people becoming suspicious.

- Airport security was faaaaaar more relaxed.

- I had the distinct sense then that the world was moving in a positive direction, and that things were more positive in general (including the racial situation). By around 1996, I felt like things were on the decline though, and that the optimism was fading in America.

- Good action movies, such as Toy Soliders, Time Cop, No Escape, and many others

- More freedom in general

- TV commercials seemed more light-hearted and humorous, without the irritating, chatty, hyper/manic, anxiety-provoking commercials that you see now. There wasn't this constant agenda to utilize advertisements as some form of social engineering like there is now. White guys weren't constantly ridiculed and made out to be weak, bumbling doofuses as they are seen now. TV and commercials seemed to be a bit more wholesome, and everything was not nearly as sexualized as things are today.

- Jews seemed to be more quiet about their agendas back then, unlike the blatant gall that you see them having today.

Okay, that's all I could think of, ATM. I feel sadly when I think back to how much better things were back then as compared to our present era.
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Post by Winston »

I miss all those things too. Everything seemed so innocent and light hearted in the 80's. TV was much better too. The characters seemed so much more warm, wholesome and natural. I wonder what happened to it all. How did it all suddenly just vanish? I guess the changes into the 90's were gradual and unnoticed.

There was also no conspiracy movement either. The only conspiracy people knew about was the JFK assassination. But it wasn't on the scale that it is today. I'll be odbo was a lot happier back then too. lol
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Post by odbo »


Winston wrote:There was also no conspiracy movement either. The only conspiracy people knew about was the JFK assassination. But it wasn't on the scale that it is today. I'll be odbo was a lot happier back then too. lol
There was a "conspiracy movement" throughout the 20th century. It had a lot of faces. Unfortunately most people were too apathetic and too gullible to bother. Sheep basically.

Up till about the 1970s there were still some patriots and good people in positions of power. Now even small town judges are psychopaths or complete pieces of shit sell-outs. In the 1920s spreading "internationalism" was a serious charge. Now everything is in reverse.
Winston wrote:I miss all those things too. Everything seemed so innocent and light hearted in the 80's.
Notice what the "NWO" has done to us. An average grown man from the 1930s was more innocent than a teenager from the 1960s. And a man from the 1970s was more innocent than a child from the 90s. Our innocence was stripped away everytime another piece of "progress" came along. Like the internet. A 10 year old from 1995, and a 10 year old from 2005 is night and day.

In fact I feel more innocent than a lot of the youngsters of today, even though we live in the same age I'm not exposed to the same culture and websites they are. I don't watch lesbian porn and Taliban prisoners being beheaded and all that filth.
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Post by Winston »

odbo wrote: There was a "conspiracy movement" throughout the 20th century. It had a lot of faces. Unfortunately most people were too apathetic and too gullible to bother. Sheep basically.
Yeah but it was relatively unnoticed. You couldn't find information on conspiracies unless you went digging for it at the library or ordering videos from alternative mail order catalogues. No one knew anything about the Illuminati or Secret Societies. All everyone knew was a few JFK conspiracy theories about a second gunman.

What were you like in the 80's odbo? Weren't you more innocent back then? Didn't you know nothing about conspiracies?
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Post by odbo »

Winston wrote:
odbo wrote: There was a "conspiracy movement" throughout the 20th century. It had a lot of faces. Unfortunately most people were too apathetic and too gullible to bother. Sheep basically.
Yeah but it was relatively unnoticed. You couldn't find information on conspiracies unless you went digging for it at the library or ordering videos from alternative mail order catalogues. No one knew anything about the Illuminati or Secret Societies.
On the contrary. Everything was more out in the open and more people knew what was going on. There were more intelligent people and the average person had a higher intelligence. I'm talking about pre-WWII America here, not the 1980s. But yes the idea that the cold war was a hoax and the USSR was controlled by the same people that controlled the USA was too tough a pill to swallow for most.
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Re: Anyone else miss the 80s?

Post by Repatriate »

Disillusioned_American wrote:
But honestly I think I miss the nineties a little more, since by then i was old enough to appreciate what was going on around me more:

- "grunge" rock emerging from Seattle (Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam)

- Going to NYC, eating at a Korean restaurant before it was fashionable, riding the subway and walking in Central Park before the city became a police state, seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and feeling proud of my country. Things just felt more fun and exciting back then compared to now; back then you'd see asian foreigners on vacation in NYC with big cameras strapped to their necks, and they seemed excited and happy to see the US for the first time. People smiled.

- Roller skating rinks, bowling alleys, arcades, miniature golf courses, and malls were popular social-outlet destinations for teens and young adults.

- Other than some issues in LA, I felt like the racial tension was much less than it is today in this country. Although the country was quite racially diverse, it felt like things were at a more comfortable level twenty some years ago. The flood gates to massive third world immigration hadn't been opened quite yet.

- There was far less development in rural areas. There wasn't the massive construction of cookie-cutter suburban homes and condos, nor was there constant development of farm land to build houses and big box stores. Less visual pollution and crowding. Even on the Eastcoast, one could drive down a country road for miles without seeing a single house in some areas, and there wasn't always some asshole tailgating you in these once sparsely populated areas like there is now. You could pull over on the side of one of these country roads and drink a beer on your lunch break without being hassled, and without people becoming suspicious.

- Airport security was faaaaaar more relaxed.

- I had the distinct sense then that the world was moving in a positive direction, and that things were more positive in general (including the racial situation). By around 1996, I felt like things were on the decline though, and that the optimism was fading in America.

- Good action movies, such as Toy Soliders, Time Cop, No Escape, and many others

- More freedom in general

- TV commercials seemed more light-hearted and humorous, without the irritating, chatty, hyper/manic, anxiety-provoking commercials that you see now. There wasn't this constant agenda to utilize advertisements as some form of social engineering like there is now. White guys weren't constantly ridiculed and made out to be weak, bumbling doofuses as they are seen now. TV and commercials seemed to be a bit more wholesome, and everything was not nearly as sexualized as things are today.

- Jews seemed to be more quiet about their agendas back then, unlike the blatant gall that you see them having today.

Okay, that's all I could think of, ATM. I feel sadly when I think back to how much better things were back then as compared to our present era.
Your 80's childhood and 90's teen years including the music you listened to closely mirrored my own childhood and teen years. I bet you're in your early to mid 30's.

The 80's was just a strange time. I can't say that it was more innocent or optimistic because there was a lot of really bad shit going on such as the central American conflicts culminating in Iran-Contra, the Israeli/Palestinian situation was going full tilt with suicide bombings every day, and the cold war was still on. Plus there was a full blown crack epidemic in the U.S. which formed the violent ghettos of the 90's. Most of us were children or young teens then so most of that didn't matter.

I totally agree with what you said about the 90's though.. I actually think the disillusionment didn't set in until sometime around late '99/'00 when the dot com era ended. I remember people were still riding high in '97, the market was still mostly surging. People had money and were gainfully employed, college grads could find jobs, America was also enjoying a really high status in the world as the only remaining superpower. Most people liked the president and the most important news item to bitch about was an extramarital affair. Everything looked good. Then the dot com end came around, Bush won the presidency then 9/11. After that things slid rapidly downhill from that point onward. I remember '00 pretty clearly because I was still in college and felt a sense that things were shifting drastically in the wrong direction. I didn't care much about politics but I knew back then Bush was a big mistake.

Also, did you notice that mainstream music got REALLY shitty around the late 90's and well into the '00? The innovative and grassroots music scene was replaced with total corporate engineered rock like Nickelback, Linkin Park, and boy bands.


Aside from the disastrous and wasteful 2003- middle eastern wars. 2008 in many ways was the nail in the coffin. I feel that '08 more than anything signaled the end of the America as we knew it and from that point on it's going to be tough times. There's palpable sense that the order has shifted into a new dynamic that is going to get worse for the middle class.
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Post by zboy1 »

Seems like some people here liked the 90s too. I thought it was great up until the mid 90s, then things really started going down-hill in my opinion. That's when I started noticing all the changes to society--and not in a good way. All the crap that's plaguing this country really had its genesis in the 90s in my opinion. It's just that most people were asleep to really notice.
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Re: Anyone else miss the 80s?

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Post by C.J. »

A great indicator of how much better earlier decades were is how many 90s and up folks actually LIKE the earlier decades more than their own, haha.

Man, I loved the 80s. Not only was I a kid and things were SO much better, the western demonic reality wasn't in full swing back then! So stuff like miracles were still[slightly] possible, and people could still LIVE. Man, music was better too.

Now, humans are just in a terrible condition. No will of their own.
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Why do we remember the past as better than it really was?

Post by Winston »

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ult ... he-present

The past is both better and less intense than the present
Why do we look back so fondly on the past?


Published on August 10, 2009 by Art Markman, Ph.D. in Ulterior Motives

ReminiscingSummer is a time when you visit relatives. When you sit around with family, the discussion invariably turns to the past. Some of that past may be shared events from years back. Other events might reflect the experience of an older relative discussing events that occurred before you were born.

Often, though, past events are recalled with rose-tinted glasses that make those past events seem so much better than anything happening in the present.

Why is it that the past seems better than the present?

One possibility is that people experience emotions from the past more strongly than emotions from the present, and so that makes the past seem more intense than the present. A paper by Leaf Van Boven, Katherine White, and Michaela Huber in the August, 2009 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, suggests that actually the opposite is true.

They had people evaluate the intensity of a variety of experiences and examined how that intensity changed over time. For example, they had people watch a clip of a scary movie. Immediately after watching that clip, they thought it was very scary. About 20 minutes later, they had people watch a second clip. People thought that the second clip was also very scary. Interestingly, if they evaluated the first clip again after viewing the second, they didn't think it was so frightening looking back on it. That is, the intensity of the emotion went down over time. It didn't go up.

So people have strong views about the past, even though they don't experience past emotions very strongly. So what is going on?

A second possibility comes from research by Tory Higgins and Charles Stangor in a paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1988. They point out that when people make judgments about things, they usually do it in relation to something else. For example, when they say that a concert is excellent, they mean that it is excellent compared to the concerts they have seen up to that point.

They argue that when people think back to events in the past, they remember the evaluation they gave that event, but not the reason for that evaluation. For example, thinking back to a concert attended in high school, they remember that they thought it was "excellent," but forget that the basis of the judgment was all the concerts that they had seen up to that point in high school. Had they seen that concert as an adult with a greater base of experience, they might not think the concert was so wonderful.

When we look back on events from our youth, we are likely to remember many things as being excellent, or awesome, or brilliant. We just forget how we decided on their excellence or brilliance. With a broader base of experience as an adult, it takes a lot for us to be truly awed. So, we decide that things must have been better when we were younger.

http://www.myjourneytomillions.com/arti ... -get-over/

The Past Wasn’t As Good As You Remember it So Get Over It

While I am not sure if I am included in the statement anymore (since I am old) but I hate when people talk about how “thisâ€￾ generation is the worst one ever. A quote that brings a smile to my face whenever I come across it is,

"The Children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs and tyrannize over their teachers.â€￾

Written over 2,400 years ago by Socrates it is a wonder that the human race made it is as far as we did, huh? There is no generation in American History which is better than the preceding one:

* The United States currently has the lowest teen birth rate since we started keeping track 70 years ago. There were always overactive forceful teenage men as much as there always has been adventurous females.
* We have had over 20 recessions in the last century – 15 of them lasted over 10 months. This recession is not new phenomenon. We were overleveraged just like we were in the early 90s and in the late 20s.
* It was only Forty Three years ago that interracial marriage was illegal. Could you even imagine a time? Somehow same sex marriage is still illegal?
* There were always have been and always will be drugs. Sears-Roebuck sold Heroine. How f’in ridiculous is that? Imagine calling up Amazon for some H? And all you Baby-Boomers don’t go saying it is different…when you were taking LSD that was bad! You can’t just go around taking hallucinogens and blame it on experimenting.
* It was only 70 years ago when nearly the entire industrialized world was at war with one another. Imagine that today! The American Civil War claimed 625,000 U.S. Military Lives in 4 years, the War on Terror? 5,491 in 9 years.
* Is it that hard to go back in American History to find a group of immigrants being blamed for stealing jobs?
* Porn and Prostitution has literally always existed. Like Literally.
* When was that pesky event when baseball players were accused of cheating? Late 90’s or was it 1919?
* We saw 8.0%+ Unemployment in all of 1975 and from Late 1981 to early 1984 we even had a few months with over 10% unemployment

Am I pessimistic? Absolutely not. Do I want more drug use, teen pregnancy, financial hardship, deaths, and ill will toward a particular type of citizen? Absolutely not.

What I would like is that people realize the past that they idolize just isn’t as amazing as they remember it and to live in the present. Embrace current culture instead of demonizing it.
Last edited by Winston on January 10th, 2012, 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by C.J. »

*yawn*

There's a simple reason the past is more fondly remembered by westerners than the present - In the past you had godly energies inside of you as a kid - people call this youth, sexual energy, whatever. In the present, you have almost NONE because of your actions/reality as you grew older up to the present.

Westerners are one of the few groups of people who actively live in the past. Everyone else lives in the present... they still have their valuable energy.
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Post by jamesbond »

C.J. wrote:Man, music was better too.
Your right the music was better back then. :D

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