I’m not going to sugar coat it. There were good things and bad things, just like in any era.
On the good side, the standard of living was higher, especially for younger people. Wages, though already stagnating, had not reached the unliveability stage yet, and unions were still common. Communities were stronger because people hadn’t holed up online yet and local media hadn’t collapsed. What existed in terms of an online world was more open and trusting. They didn’t even have encryption on the www before '95 if you can imagine? Politicians were as corrupt as ever, but the media in general were more accountable.
On the bad side, there were a lot more incurable diseases. The Cold War was fucked up. Just knowing everything you know and love could end in 20 minutes just because some idiot turns a key somewhere. The air was actually really dirty in a lot of places. I know there are a lot of parts of the world where that’s still true, but clean air acts did work where implemented. Also, bars were all smoky as fuck. I couldn’t go near one with my asthma.
I could go on, but I’ll end on a more positive note. I was thinking just the other day how astronomy has been going through a golden age of discovery all throughout my life. In my childhood, they were sending out probes to give us the first close up looks at planets in our solar system. Then in the 90s we got the Hubble Space Telescope, we discovered our first exoplanets (planets around other stars) and that there is a 2nd ring system in our own solar system: the Kuiper Belt. Then we found a moon of Saturn with active geysers, Pluto sent us a ❤️, and now we have the James Webb Space Telescope joining massive ground-based telescopes that are just bursting with discoveries across the board. I just can’t get enough of this stuff!
I’m not going to sugar coat it. There were good things and bad things, just like in any era.
On the good side, the standard of living was higher, especially for younger people. Wages, though already stagnating, had not reached the unliveability stage yet, and unions were still common. Communities were stronger because people hadn’t holed up online yet and local media hadn’t collapsed. What existed in terms of an online world was more open and trusting. They didn’t even have encryption on the www before '95 if you can imagine? Politicians were as corrupt as ever, but the media in general were more accountable.
On the bad side, there were a lot more incurable diseases. The Cold War was fucked up. Just knowing everything you know and love could end in 20 minutes just because some idiot turns a key somewhere. The air was actually really dirty in a lot of places. I know there are a lot of parts of the world where that’s still true, but clean air acts did work where implemented. Also, bars were all smoky as fuck. I couldn’t go near one with my asthma.
I could go on, but I’ll end on a more positive note. I was thinking just the other day how astronomy has been going through a golden age of discovery all throughout my life. In my childhood, they were sending out probes to give us the first close up looks at planets in our solar system. Then in the 90s we got the Hubble Space Telescope, we discovered our first exoplanets (planets around other stars) and that there is a 2nd ring system in our own solar system: the Kuiper Belt. Then we found a moon of Saturn with active geysers, Pluto sent us a ❤️, and now we have the James Webb Space Telescope joining massive ground-based telescopes that are just bursting with discoveries across the board. I just can’t get enough of this stuff!