Welcome to the year Nineteen Eighty Thrity-One.

[ElboRuum]

Is it me or do I detect no fundamental change in the attitudes of people since this country slid right 31 years ago? Thinking back to that time, when the "every man for himself" cultural zeitgeist swept over our country with one beatific Reaganesque smile, and thinking about now, don't you feel that things haven't moved past that point?

Thing that worries me is that now several generations of people have known nothing else but this sort of contempt for the concept of community, and that we'll never be able to get that sense of community and shared fate back, alien as it is to most now.

What do you think?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. "ninteen eighty thirty-one" ... ... 19831 ... ?

did I miss some cultural reference here?

[Duer 157099]

2. or a missed word:1980, 31 years ago... n/t

[MilesColtrane]

3. deleted

[ElboRuum]

5. No, no missed word. 198-31. It's what I meant.

The 31st year of the decade known as the eighties. I believe some people refer to it as 2011.

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. Okay, then maybe a missed number?

Like a '0'?

[ElboRuum]

13. No... I didn't miss a number...

[ElboRuum]

4. No, you missed the joke...

I've often remarked that the 80's as a decade is starkly different than any other in that, where most decades last only 10 years, it is 31 years long and still counting.

So you may refer to it as 2011. I refer to it as 198-31.

[Union Scribe]

6. I like that.

Sort of a Groundhog Day thing, where we aren't allowed to say we've gone forward until we actuall do.

[loyalsister]

7. Some change

I would say that people are less compassionate.
I dispute the idea that we have been in any place near to a real left to be dragged from in my 30 years of political awareness. Any step left we have been able to make still lies right of center.
There are cultural influences that will influence the future. Many generational. Gen xers raised by Reaganite yuppies are predictably selfish.
Many also have education, money, and therefore power. Many of the people who are a little younger have been showing signs of having more empathy.
I don't want to give in to a belief that nothing will get better. I try to look to what is possible with the young people who are gaining political clout with their numbers. If politicians court them they have to be pretty liberal.

[NYC_SKP]

8. That would be about right. Carter out, Reagan in. Solar and high mileage automobiles out...

American jobs out... Outsourcing in, wars and lies in, SUVs just on the horizon...

[trackfan]

9. It's not just you.

I've thought pretty much the same thing. It seems like there was more difference in the general culture between 1979 and 1983 than between 1983 and now, in spite of all the brilliant technological advancement, particularly in communications.

[CANDO]

10. Do you know what kills me?

It's the fact that the powers behind the right wing have been able to sustain the propaganda. Go ask a wing nut what's wrong with the US, and you'll hear the same shit they've been spewing for decades despite all the gains they've had in turning us rightward. My brother is a hardcore wing nut, and when I make that last point to him and get him to reflect for a moment at their "successes", he goes silent for several seconds and then just starts in again. For them, enough is never enough. He's a smart guy, and when I tell him if the right ever totally wins and gets everything they want it'll be like the 1500's all over again with Feudalism. Again he goes silent, as though I have stumped him or jolted him into a new dimension. But to no avail. What they really want is a return to Feudalism. They just haven't wrapped their minds around that concept just yet.

[B Calm]

11. What year is it?