Future Shock

I've been re-reading The White Album, and I'm struck by the two passages that describe problems that were once manageable in America in 1968 (resentment and cultish ignorance) that now are jet-fueled by social media and bandwidth and a collapse of even basic civic decency.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 24, 2024

We are seeing in American culture the increasing proficiency in the manufacturing and sustaining of resentment using various tools of propaganda fueled by new technology. Thus, “resentment” becomes part of the way many Americans identify themselves as and connect with others.

— John O'Grady (@jhog667) February 24, 2024

Yeah, that’s as new as racism in America.

And before anyone says "it was not manageable," the US survived 1968, labored on through the 70s and 80s as an innovative culture (despite, uh, avocado gold appliances), won the Cold War, and became the richest and most culturally and militarily powerful nation on earth. /1 https://t.co/y4P6OZ2fdf

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 24, 2024

I dunno. I didn’t choose Reagan, or Watergate, or double digit inflation for almost a decade; or Iran/Contra, 9/11, not even disco 🪩 *shudder*. I did choose decency and kindness, mostly. But not many other people did. So there is that.

Mostly I think Alvin Toffler was right, and the future he said would shock us is now. Lots of reaction to too much change, IOW.  I also think you’re a person who learned about the ‘70’s and ‘80’s in history class (and why skip the ‘60’s?. History didn’t begin in ‘68.) And history wasn’t settled by the fall of the USSR, despite what Fukuyama said (although, in another sense, it did, and there (some) of our problems began. Because a lot of our problems started with WWII, where we became a united nation because of common enemies. When we defeated them we had the USSR to carry on that proud sense that we were the good guys.

Well, until Vietnam.

After the Wall fell, who was our enemy now? No one external, must be somebody internal! Blacks! Then feminists! And gays! When it wasn’t approved to hate on them anymore, we went back to good old American 🇺🇸 xenophobia, and damned immigrants for all our problems. Ah, tradition! And we can still hate blacks, feminists, and LGBTQ, as well as Hispanics! It’s an endless feast!

I still can’t figure out who chose it, but I’m pretty sure it was long before we got here. Don’t forget Reagan chose racism for his first campaign. And barely any white people noticed. Or do now.

And the appliances were avocado green and harvest gold. “The horror! The horror!” Not to mention shag carpet. Which is better left unmentioned, along with Nehru jackets and bell bottoms.

Maybe social media threw some kerosene on the fire. But really it just revealed there were more of them out there than we wanted to see.