Anyone remember this movie? It came out in 1984 and starred the late, great Roy "You're gonna need a bigger boat" Scheider. I remember watching this flick soon after it came out on video, and even though I was only 13 at the time, I was fascinated by the movie's vision of what 2010 would look like and also by the fact that, barring any unforseen pianos falling on my head, I would live to see if the movie's vision would match reality.I now have that chance, especially since my wife and I don't own a piano.
I still don't think it has fully struck me that another decade has passed. I remember so vividly when the '80s ended - I was a senior in high school - and who can forget the end of the '90s, with it also being the end of the century AND the millenium? And please don't start with the whole, "well, the century didn't really end until 2001... I know, I get it!
It's funny how each decade has its own personality. Don't get me started on the 1960s, even though the first half was an extension of the 1950s; it was actually the 1970s when things got really insane. Then we pulled back from the brink of insanity in the 1980s as we enjoyed the governance of Ronald Reagan, and yes, greed really was good. The 1990s I look at as the calm before the storm. Things were beginning to deteriorate, but we were just too fat and happy to care. Then along came the '00s... the Oughts?... the Ones? What the hell do we call this decade anyway?
I have mixed feelings about the '00s.
On a micro (personal) scale, they were pretty good to me. I got married to a wonderful and loving wife; had two amazing children; worked for and received a B.A., a teaching credential, and a M.A.; began teaching, bought a house (two actually; I like the current one better); and settled in to a comfortable life of domesticity. Not bad.
On a macro scale, I think this decade stunk up the joint. September 11, 2001 changed us forever; thousands of families lost loved ones either in the attacks that day or in the battlegrounds of Iraq and Afghanistan; the feeling of freedom that we still had was denigrated badly, both by worries about terrorism, but even more so, I believe, by our own government. Whether it regarded national security or economics, we are not as free today as we were ten years ago. Just look at the increasing hassle we face at the airport as children, nuns, and little old ladies continue to be goosed at the airport while Abdul from Nigeria sails right on through with his undies full of boom-boom. Just look at the downright criminal behavior of our kleptocratic congresscritters and our enabling presidents (yes, Bush, you too!) as they passed and increasingly continue to pass all manner of legalized theft that extinguishes - in the words of Milton Friedman - our freedom to choose.
With this in mind, I get the feeling that this decade is shaping up to be a barnburner. When you have the Tea Party, which isn't even an established political party, beating out both the Democrats and Republicans in polls, you just know that something has to give. With neither side - statist or conservative - willing to back down, it's just a question of whether or not our current national cultural and political conflict will continue to be debated at the ballot box rather than the ammo box. Believe me, I am not calling for violence here; I am merely reporting the writing that I see on the wall. I truly fear for the future of our country in the upcoming decade.
With the aforementioned wife and children I previously mentioned, I think about these possibilities each and every day.
With that not-so-cheerful thought, I wish all of you a stellar, safe, and satisfying 2010, and
Good Day to You, Sir
6 comments:
Good post. But, you say that the 70s were when things really got insane. Perhaps in a political sense you are right. But the roots of those politics were in the 60s. And many of our social ills are based in the 60s - great increase of crime and out of wedlock births, immature adolescents taking over college campuses and spineless administrators idly standing by, etc., etc., etc.
You're right of course. I just always like to make sure that people know that there is a huge distinction between the early '60s and the late '60s, whereas the '70s were messed up from beginning to end.
Yes, there was a big difference between early and late 60s. While the seeds of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley were germinating in the early 60s, nothing concrete happened until 1964 and then came the great unraveling... in a hurry.
I remember not liking that movie. I thought it was a little too political, and the politics certainly didn't lean my way!
Darren - the politics in almost all movies for the past many years lean only one way.
2015 is coming up. That was "the future" in the second Back To The Future movie :0
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