America Then…and Now
An unwinable war, global warming, inadequate healthcare, and a teetering economy all conspire to paint a different America than the one tackled by the baby boom generation. During the 1960s, America straddled the planet like a colossus, indisputably the world’s leader in industry, banking, per capita wealth, health, science, and education.
Thanks to the power of our post-war hegemony, Americans were numbed by conformity, seduced by Mickey Mouse, and tucked in with lullabies of liberty and justice for all. By the 1960s, it had grown agonizingly clear that the United States was sleep walking while it was being torn apart by a costly Cold War, anti-communist hysteria, economic schizophrenia, and gender and racial conflict. Wake up, America, became a critical battle cry.
Today, America leads no one. We are no longer a producer nation – we are a nation of consumers. Banking, like industry, has sailed away on the flowing tide, and frontiers in science and technology are explored elsewhere. We rank 34th in infant mortality rates and don’t even appear on the Richter scale of quality education.
Today, Americans are waking up. Not just the poor and downtrodden. All of us. And we don’t need to be told by Stephen Stills and Buffalo Springfield that “…somethin’s happenin’ here.”
Americans are, in the words of scriptwriter and social prophet Paddy Chayevsky, “mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it anymore.” Stay tuned, Mark Rudd and the rest of us 1960s “gray hairs.” Once again, “the times, they are a-changin’.”
An unwinable war, global warming, inadequate healthcare, and a teetering economy all conspire to paint a different America than the one tackled by the baby boom generation. During the 1960s, America straddled the planet like a colossus, indisputably the world’s leader in industry, banking, per capita wealth, health, science, and education.
Thanks to the power of our post-war hegemony, Americans were numbed by conformity, seduced by Mickey Mouse, and tucked in with lullabies of liberty and justice for all. By the 1960s, it had grown agonizingly clear that the United States was sleep walking while it was being torn apart by a costly Cold War, anti-communist hysteria, economic schizophrenia, and gender and racial conflict. Wake up, America, became a critical battle cry.
Today, America leads no one. We are no longer a producer nation – we are a nation of consumers. Banking, like industry, has sailed away on the flowing tide, and frontiers in science and technology are explored elsewhere. We rank 34th in infant mortality rates and don’t even appear on the Richter scale of quality education.
Today, Americans are waking up. Not just the poor and downtrodden. All of us. And we don’t need to be told by Stephen Stills and Buffalo Springfield that “…somethin’s happenin’ here.”
Americans are, in the words of scriptwriter and social prophet Paddy Chayevsky, “mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it anymore.” Stay tuned, Mark Rudd and the rest of us 1960s “gray hairs.” Once again, “the times, they are a-changin’.”
"You Don't Need a Weatherman..." was previously published in the January, 2008 edition of ThriveNYC <http://www.thrivenyc.com/nyc31/youdon'tneed.html>.
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