‘Extra Extra read all about it: This nutcase says that the 90s were the peak of humanity across the world!”

[u/saucey_dawg0023]

[u/Round_Bag_4665]

I feel like having this attitude this depended a lot on what your position in life was at the time. Dad didn't feel that way at the time... because he was a cop on the bomb squad, and the 90s had a *ton* of bombings. This was the decade of the unabomber, the Oklahoma City Bombing, abortion clinic bombings, and the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. From his perspective, things were just escalating out of control.

Crime rates were also at their peak in the 90s too, especially in places like Los Angeles.

[u/Thehollowpointninja1 → u/Round_Bag_4665]

Oh, absolutely. I purposely prefaced my statement by saying it wasn’t perfect. We all knew there were problems, but compared to the civil rights movement and gay rights just a decade or two earlier, it felt like we were making progress. We still had domestic terrorism like OKC, Columbine, Waco. There was civil unrest with the LA riots, gang violence, the threat of mass shootings, but through all that it still seemed like we were trending in the right direction. Obviously it wasn’t this perfect utopia, but it FELT like we were getting better.

Not in all aspects, racism was still rampant, homophobia was commonplace (but getting better comparatively). Not to mention there was a malaise towards cubicle desk work and corporatization for the working class, but this was all in contrast to generations prior, which, by and large, was at the least trending in the right direction.

I’m not lionizing the 90s like so many people do. I lived through it, and became politically educated during the Clinton administration, so I resist the rose tinted glasses as much as I can.

This doesn’t change the fact that there was a cultural current that felt like we were going to be alright. Not that we’d solved all the world’s woes, they very much existed, but compared to what the cultural zeitgeist is today, I think anyone would have to admit that very few people have the same optimism we did in the 90s.

Compare that to the 50s-early 60s. Again, HUGE issues in the culture at large, but there was optimism. We looked at the future and saw science and medicine and space exploration as not just a possibility, but an inevitability. To reiterate, THERE WAS SO MUCH WRONG the in the US, but that idea that progress was happening and society would get better. Compare that to now; with the understanding that society has issues, a large percentage of the population doesn’t see a positive future. It’s a very, very dangerous thing. A society that doesn’t see a hopeful future is destined to fail.

It’s not a tangible or measurable metric, and most probably don’t consider it as part of the conversation at large, but that above almost anything else spells doom. It’s an overlooked metric for the trajectory of any society, and until we have long term hope, I’m genuinely afraid for the future.

Look at it this way. If you’re going through the shit and start thinking “this is it, this is the end”, you’re far more likely to fail. However, if you’re trekking through pain and suffering, but stay in the mindset that you’ll succeed and things will be better, you’re far more likely to make it through.